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THE TRUTH ABOUT 
THE TSAR 



AND THE PRESENT STATE OF RUSSIA 



BY 

CARL JOUBERT 

AUTHOR OF 

" RUSSIA AS IT REALLY I»" 



Philadelphia: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

London: EVELEIGH NASH 

1905 



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Gfft from 
the Estate of Miss Ruth Putnam 
Oct.6,1931 



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PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION 



In '^ Russia As It Really Is " I pointed out the red 
smoke issuing from the Tsar's chimney. In ** The 
Truth About the Tsar " I pointed out that the 
edifice was on fire, and that if it was to be saved 
Nicholas must abandon his inheritance of autocracy, 
side with the people, and give to them the reality, 
not the shadow of freedom. To-day my message 
of friendship from the Russian to the English- 
speaking peoples is of a different character. 

The late Sir Robert Morier, one of the ablest of 
English Ambassadors, was accustomed to say that 
no man should be more than 5 per cent, ahead of 
the people he sought to influence ; if he was 10 per 
cent, in advance of current opinion he was 
considered a crank ; if 20 per cent, a fanatic or even 
a madman. My two books on Russia contained 
nothing but sober fact, but they were ahead of public 
opinion. My predictions have been fulfilled. The 
Autocrat s massacre of unarmed, peaceful Christians 



-■^ 



6 PREFACE 

by hired Moslems on January 23 ended the armis- 
tice between the people and the Romanoffs. 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch, who in January was 
already in the quicksands to his shoulders, is now 
lost. No constitutional monarch will succeed the 
autocracy. The United States of Russia hold out 
the right hand of friendship to the people of Europe 
and America. It is already time for the latter to 
decide whether Russian autocracy or freedom is the 
more congenial to British or American interests. 
The civil war now raging can only have one end. 
Violence will be met with violence. Where one 
head has fallen for freedom ten will be required of 
autocracy. The sentence pronounced and executed 
against Sergius has been pronounced against the 
family of Romanoff. For the anguish and suffering 
in store for the ladies and little children of that 
family I feel but cannot speak. Let them seek an 
asylum outside Russia and they will be unharmed, 
but the flag of the United States of Russia will fly 
over the Kremlin whether the Romanoffs elect to 
perish or to fly. 

CARL JOUBERT. 

February 1905, 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

I. Reverie 
II. The Past 

III. The Present 

IV. Public Opinion 

V. Unrest 
VI. Corruption . 

VII. The Army at Home 
VIII. The Seat of War 

IX. The Real Cause of the War (Part I.) 
X. The Real Cause of the War (Part IT.) 
XI. The Russian Naval Victory 
XII. The Awakening ..... 

XIII. The Power Behind the Zemstvos 

XIV. The Power Behind the Zemstvos {continued) 
XV. Signs of the Times 

XVI. The Last of the Romanoffs 
XVII. The Dowager Empress • 



PAOE 

9 

15 
26 

36 
43 

54 

63 

75 
86 

100 

109 

123 

138 
154 
165 
182 

197 



8 CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGB 

XVIII. The Power Behind Tsardom . . .215 

XIX. Some British Opinions of the Tsar . . 229 

XX. Some British Opinions of the Tsar (contmued) 239 

XXI. The Soul of Russia 252 



CHAPTER I 

REVERIE 

Outside my window there was the tramp of feet 
in the creaking snow — a pause — and then in husky 
unison, which was not altogether free from a sus- 
picion of strong drink, voices were uplifted in a 
hymn of praise : 



t< 



Hark, the Herald Angels sing, 
Glory to the new-born King ! 
Peace on earth and mercy mild- 



i9 



The singers, who from their voices I judged to 
be the men of the village choir, were evidently old- 
fashioned in their carols, or perhaps they had never 
heard of the *' Revised Version'' of Hymns Ancient 
and Modern. On that account I was inclined to 
forgive them for breaking in upon the quiet of the 
night, although it still wanted a fortnight to 
Christmas. But the words of the hymn, for better 
or for worse, struck me as vastly incongruous to the 
times ; and as the voices came to a welcome pause 
at the end of the first verse, another aspect of the 
great Advent which they sang presented itself to 
my mind: ''Think not that I am come to send 



10 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a 
sword." 

Never, alas ! has prophecy been more completely 
fulfilled, I thought, calling to mind the bloody history 
of the Churches, which have fought and torn, mur- 
dered and tortured in the name of Christ for close 
on two thousand years, and rejoice in the appellation 
** militant." But the Christian Churches have no 
monopoly of the fighting spirit, nor are they to be 
held responsible for the system of organised murder 
which has ravaged the earth from the beginning. 
Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, 
Phoenicians, Medes, Persians, and Lydians all 
have practised the bloody trade of war. It would 
seem that cosmos and murder were the twin ofP^ 
spring of chaos. The survival of the fittest has 
hitherto meant the organised assassination of the 
weakest ; and all religions and creeds have accepted 
the theory, and stand or have fallen by the power 
of the sword. Their very gods have been mur- 
derers — Ammon, Apis, Isis, Osiris, Jupiter, Neptune, 
Vulcan, Mars, and all the hosts of pagan heavens. 
The men whom the world has held in highest 
esteem, and whose names are written in red letters 
on the pages of history, have been for the most part 
men of the sword — men whose ambition and genius 
in the art of slaying have laid the nations prostrate 
at their feet. From Alexander to Napoleon is a 
far cry, but there are many accounted great before 
Alexander, and many since Napoleon, whose sole 



REVERIE 11 

claim to fame is based upon their aptitude for 
wholesale slaughter. 

The strain of cruelty and the thirst for bloodshed 
are inherent in the sons of men. The peacemaker 
is derided as a faddist and visionary. But what 
was Alexander to Diogenes ? Or what is Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch to Leon Tolstoy ? Great actions as 
against great thoughts. Great ambitions as against 
self-effacement. And yet, as the world reckons, 
Alexander was a great man, and Diogenes a cynic 
in a tub — Nicholas Alexandrovitch an autocrat and 
great war-lord, with equivocal leanings towards 
peace, and Tolstoy a hopeless visionary. 

The hymn of the *' Herald Angels*' came to an 
end, and the rasping cough of one of the singers, 
accompanied by a deprecating knock at the front 
door, gave warning that something more than 
passive resistance was expected of me. As if to 
accentuate the cheerlessness of their surroundings 
they struck up again : 

^' See amid the winter snow." 

Instantly, in my mind's eye, I saw two vast hosts 
confronting one another across a river. The snow 
lay on the ground, and the cold blast of winter 
penetrated into the trenches and works which, like 
huge rabbit warrens, had been constructed by the 
opposing armies on the banks of the Sha-ho. Far 
away, to the south, a half-starved, beleaguered garri- 
son held tenaciously to their battered forts, in the 



12 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

face of repeated charges of fierce little yellow men, 
shouting ** Banzai," as they dashed forward to cer- 
tain death. Here were scenes '*amid the winter 
snow " to which the eyes of the whole world were 
directed. But there is another side to it, inglorious 
and not less real, about which I reflected as I sat by 
the fireside and listened involuntarily to the carols 
at my door. 

A few days before a colonel of the Russian army 
had been to visit me. He was a deserter from the 
forces of the Tsar, having no inclination to fight 
against an enemy who was no enemy to his country, 
nor for a cause which did not concern the honour 
and vital interests of Russia. He was not prepared 
to draw his sword in defence of the existing Gov- 
ernment of his unhappy country, and therefore he 
had deserted. Numbers of his men, he told me, 
had also crossed the frontier ; some to France, some 
to England, some to America. 

** But the majority of the men who have deserted 
from the Russian army have not gone far beyond 
the frontiers," he said. '* They are waiting to return 
to their homes later on." 

I expressed surprise that the deserters should 
contemplate an action fraught with so much danger 
as returning to Russia when the war is over would 
of a certainty entail. 

*' They will return when the signal is given," he 
answered shortly ; and as I glanced at his face my 
blood ran cold, for I knew what he meant. 



REVERIE 13 

**That means more bloodshed and murder!" I 
exclaimed, aghast at the thought. 

'* Yes,'* he said callously, *' more bloodshed ; but I 
should not call it murder/* 

I did not argue the point with him. 

*' And what will be the outcome of it ? " 

He shrugged his shoulders. 

'' I neither know nor care," he answered. ** It is 
not our fault. The Government should have let us 
alone ; but since that was not to be, they will have 
to reckon with us later on." 

" Then you are not a believer in Tolstoy s 
humanity ? '* 

'*No! a thousand times no!" he replied hotly, 
striking his chest with his clenched fist, as is the 
manner of Russians when they are roused from the 
lethargy of indifference by the heat of passion. 
** We will have nothing to do with Tolstoy's methods. 
There is no turning back any more from our deter- 
mination. The Bureaucracy must go! Why do 
you speak of Tolstoy ? " 

'* Because Tolstoy s philosophy stands for humanity, 
nobleness, meekness and righteousness," I answered. 
But even as I spoke I was conscious of advocating 
a doctrine of perfection to which human nature 
cannot attain. I felt in my own heart that there 
are, after all, things worth fighting for, and for which 
no man need be ashamed to die. 

^' Go back a few hundred years in the history 
of your own country if you want a parallel to our 



14 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

present case in Russia," he said. ** Were the rights of 
the Anglo-Saxon race acquired without bloodshed ? 
Has tyranny ever burnt itself out? Are we to 
stand by and watch the flames devouring our 
country, and not raise a hand to quench them ? 
That is Tolstoy's doctrine/* 

I could not deny the justness of his comparison ; 
and my heart went out to the renegade colonel, who 
was prepared to give his life and honour in the cause 
of liberty. But I answered — 

*' Remember, he who takes the sword shall perish 
by the sword.*' 

** Precisely, my friend ! " he replied. '* That is the 
law to which we appeal, and we shall not shirk the 
ordeal by combat. It is by the sword that Russia 
is governed — then let the Government perish by the 
sword. There is no other way." 

When I had reached this point in my reverie I 
sprang up and threw open the window. 

*' Away with you — you fools ! " I cried to the 
carol singers in the snow beneath. **What have 
you to do with * peace on earth ' ? Go, sing your 
sonofs beneath the windows of the War Offices of 
Europe ! Sing them to the Tsar of Russia, and the 
Procurator of the Holy Synod. Away ! you idiots, 
with your Christmas carols — away, from under my 
window ! For your songs are nothing but falsehoods, 
and your peace a mockery ! " 



CHAPTER II 

THE PAST 

Why rake it up ? Would it not be better to leave 
it to bury its own dead ? It is a rank festering heap 
of infamy and corruption, I admit ; but the midden 
of the present is not much more wholesome ; and 
there are no signs of improvement for the future. 
And therefore, if we want to get an understanding 
of things as they are, we must turn over the muck- 
heap of things as they used to be. Otherwise our 
judgments are apt to be unjust, and our conclusions 
faulty. In examining the present state of affairs in 
the Empire of Russia we must take into considera- 
tion the influences of the past, and endeavour to trace 
the march of civilisation for the last century. We 
shall find that civilisation has been marking time in 
the dominions of the Tsars of Russia ; and that it 
has been practising this unprogressive exercise since 
the Middle Ages. If only a Tsar could be found 
who would give the word *' Forward," we might look 
for some improvement in the pace ; but Tsars with 
progressive tendencies are as extinct as the dodo — 
if they ever existed. The lust of autocratic power 
is the inheritance of the Romanoffs. To concede a 



16 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

point to their wretched subjects is a sign of weak- 
ness. In times of stress and popular agitation, as at 
present, concessions may be mentioned, but when 
the uneasiness is allayed by specious promises no 
action must be taken. The order is, *' As you 
were,'' which might well be adopted as the motto of 
the Russian Empire. 

Nicholas I., the great grandfather of Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, succeeded to the throne in 1825, and 
forthwith established the policy which animates the 
Government of Russia to the present day. The 
dominant factors in this policy are the sanctity of 
autocratic power, and Pan- Slavism. In order to 
uphold the former Nicholas I. strove to gather all 
the races of his kingdom into one Church, of which 
he himself was the head ; and thereby to exercise 
spiritual as well as temporal sway over his subjects. 
To this end he prosecuted rigorously all religions 
and creeds, in the hope of compelling the members 
of them to become Orthodox Greek Catholics. With 
fanatical zeal he massacred Poles and Jews who 
would not acknowledge him as the master of their 
souls as well as of their bodies. At the same time, 
as an inducement to all to embrace the Greek Church, 
he threw open the doors of the prisons for the 
liberation of all criminals who were willing to be- 
come members of his Church. In 1831, when the 
Polish insurrection broke out, he vented his fanatical 
fury on the heretic Poles, slaughtering impartially 
those who had risen and those who had not, includ- 



THE PAST 17 

ing women and children. In Suwalki, Lublin, 
Lithuania and Kovno, the earth ran red with inno- 
cent blood. The priests of the Greek Church 
incited their flocks to kill Poles and Jews ; and 
prescribed as a penance for murder two days of 
fasting. 

I have elsewhere"^ referred to the treatment meted 
out to the Jews by Nicholas L in his eiForts to con- 
vert them. In 1849 Hebrew children of the age of 
six and upwards were taken from their parents and 
sent to regiments in distant parts of Russia, where 
they were known as '' Kantonisti '' (children of the 
regiment). They were required to embrace the 
religion of the Greek Church and kneel before the 
Cross. With the little ones there could not have 
been much trouble, for they knew no better. But 
many thousands of the older children would not be 
persuaded to embrace the Christian religion, and 
suffered martyrdom, being horribly tortured and 
killed for their faith. That was the fate of thousands 
of Jewish boys in \the reign of Nicholas I. The 
Hebrew and Roman Catholic girls suffered a worse 
fate, being handed over to the lust of the priests and 
soldiery. I have met old women in Russia who 
have vivid recollections of the days of Nicholas I., 
women who have suffered nameless wrongs and have 
been haunted with lifelong shame. 

Such were the means by which Nicholas I. sought 
to enforce the doctrine of the divine right of auto- 

* See " Russia as It Really Is." 

B 



18 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

cracy. His Pan-Slavism, which was the second 
string to his poHcy, manifested itself in the stifling 
of education, in a rigorous censorship of the press, 
and in the suppression of the languages of conquered 
States. The dream of Nicholas I. was of a mighty 
nation, shut off from the influences of Western pro- 
gress, developing along its own lines. Speaking one 
language, acknowledging one religion, serving blindly 
one Tsar, whose word unchallenged swayed the 
destinies of the whole. 

Nicholas I. died in 1855, and was succeeded by 
his son, Alexander II. Early in his reign Alexander 
showed signs of falling short, to a grievous extent, 
of the estimate which his father had formed of his 
character, when he spoke of him as showing ''the 
true Russian spirit. '^ For Alexander made some 
efforts to ameliorate the lot of his people. He 
emancipated the serfs. He reformed the civil and 
criminal tribunals, and he established zemstvos in the 
provinces. His intentions were, without doubt, 
good ; but, unfortunately, the condition of the serfs 
under their new name is not one whit more enviable 
than it was before ; the civil and criminal adminis- 
tration of the law is as corrupt as ever ; and the 
zemstvos have become a terror rather than a blessing 
to the* people. The reason for the failure of 
Alexander's reforms is to be found in the fact that 
he omitted from his programme the elements of all 
social reforms — education and enlightenment. 

It was during his reign that Nihilism came to the 






THE PAST 19 

front as a force to be reckoned with. The iron hand 
of Nicholas I. had immediately crushed any symptoms 
of discontent, but Alexander was good- natured and 
anxious to propitiate the nation. He dallied with 
the reformers, and they led him ever further from 
" the true Russian spirit '' which his father had pre- 
dicted for him. When, at last, he realised to what 
length he was being taken, and that the more he 
gave the more was demanded of him, he drew back, 
and began to institute repressive measures against 
the extreme section of the Nihilists ; until at last 
he fell a victim to those whom he had sought to 
placate, and Sophia Perovskaja laid him low in 
1881. 

Alexander III., who succeeded him, was a true 
Russian moujik by nature, a worthy descendant of 
Nicholas I. Ill-educated, he could swear like a 
strugovtchik, and drink like a fish. His manners 
were uncouth, and he would behave himself in the 
presence of ladies of the Court with all the abandon 
of a bargee. His courage was not eqpal to his bad 
manners. It was two years before he would trust 
himself to face the ordeal of coronation, dreading 
the fate of his father if he ventured out of his palace 
at Gatschina. He inaugurated his reign with M. 
Pobiedonostseff as Procurator of the Holy Synod, 
a post invented for that gentleman's benefit, and a 
wholesale slaughter of Jews in the South- Western 
provinces of his kingdom. Having thus made his 
presence felt, he proceeded to carry out the reaction- 



20 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

ary policy which his grandfather had inaugurated ; 
and Russia became a perfect inferno, which it would 
require a Dante to describe. He rescinded or 
annulled all the legislation of his father which leant 
towards progress, and left to M. Pobiedonostseif 
the congenial task of framing laws of oppression 
against the Jews and other undesirables. Education 
sank to its lowest ebb ; and in the universities, 
polytechnics, and gymnasiums ignorant Russian 
professors were appointed to take the places of the 
educated foreign instructors who had hitherto 
occupied the chairs of learning. I was told by 
enlightened people in Taganrog that the rule of 
Nicholas I. was infinitely to be preferred to that erf* 
Alexander III. — and they had experienced both. 

It was in the reign of Alexander III. that young 
Russians first began to migrate to foreign universities 
for education, and to acquire there the lessons which 
were to make them dangerous enemies to the peace 
of their country. 

It was Alexander III. who gave utterance to the 
famous words : '' Jalka, Jalka chto Nicholai speet!" 
(what a pity that Nicholas sleeps !), and the circum- 
stances were as follows : The massacres and perse- 
cutions of the Jews had reached a climax. The 
civilised world, and a good many Russians as well, 
were aghast at the infamies which were perpetrated 
on the unfortunate Hebrews. A certain noble lady 
ventured to remonstrate, or rather to supplicate, the 
Tsar on behalf of the Jews ; and he, calling to mind 



THE PAST 21 

the implacable hatred of his grandfather and his 
own efforts to follow in his footsteps, gave vent to 
the now famous phrase. 

He reverted absolutely to the ideal policy of 
Nicholas I., with its two outstanding features, 
namely, the sanctity of autocracy, and the Pan- 
Slavonic doctrine : One language — one religion — 
one Tsar. The Poles, Finns, and Jews suffered 
under his rule as no other subject nation has ever 
suffered. The Polish language was suppressed, and 
education was denied to all but a trifling per- 
centage. The liberties which Finland had enjoyed 
for centuries were revoked, and the Orthodox Church 
instituted a Holy Inquisition in the unhappy country. 
The fate of the Jews I have dealt with at some 
length in '* Russia as It Really Is/' and I shall not 
refer to the subject again here. 

Such were the traditions which Nicholas II. in- 
herited, along with the throne of his ancestors, in 
1894. I have given this slight sketch of his pre- 
decessors because the only excuse for Nicholas II. 
is to be found in the influence of heredity. The son of 
Alexander III. and the great grandson of Nicholas I. 
cannot be expected to escape a strain of cruelty and 
obstinacy. I make the acknowledgment gladly, for 
what it is worth. 

Though I have met Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
on my travels in and out of Russia I do not claim 
on that account to be in a position to speak on 
my own authority of his personal characteristics, as 



22 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

certain people do who have been honoured with an 
Imperial hand-shake and a cigarette. The know- 
ledge which I have of the Tsar of Russia has been 
derived from officials in the Tsars service, and 
others v/hose business has brought them into con- 
tact with his Majesty. 

As to his personal appearance, he is spare and 
short in stature, with narrow shoulders, and he has 
none of the outward characteristics of his father or 
grandfather. Like most little men he is highly 
endowed with self-importance. So much for his 
general appearance. We have heard a great deal 
lately of his character as a man and as a monarch, 
and but little more remains to be said. He is not 
remarkable for physical or for moral courage, and 
he lives in a perpetual state of nervous anxiety. On 
one occasion, when he was driving through the 
streets in an open carriage, a little girl, bravely 
decked out in all her best clothes, threw a bouquet 
of flowers into the carriage. A certain general 
officer, who was seated by him, had to fish Nicholas 
up from the bottom of the carriage ; but not before 
he had convinced him that they were very fine 
flowers indeed, and quite harmless. It was some 
time before he recovered from the shock to the 
system which this incident caused ; whilst the news- 
papers of the whole world announced extensively 
*' Attempted Assassination of the Tsar/' The 
officers of his bodyguard, some of whom are known 
to me, are still laughing in their sleeves at the joke. 



THE PAST 23 

But the general who played the part of rescuer is no 
longer in St. Petersburg. He was given a post in 
a distant Government, where he is not perpetually 
brought face to face with his Imperial Majesty. 

The grand visit which Nicholas II. paid to 
France a few years ago was a period of severe strain 
both to himself and to his gentlemen-in-waiting. So 
long as he was at sea Nicholas was happy enough ; 
but his troubles began when he landed in France. 
He was very far from happy whilst he was in Paris, 
though the newspapers had a great deal to say 
about his magnificent entry in state. But the news- 
papers did not tell their readers what his gentlemen- 
in-waiting had to undergo. Twice a day he received 
absolution from his chaplain. In his clothes was 
concealed a small piece of garlic, as a talisman 
against the plots of his enemies. A pope of the 
Orthodox Church used to lick his left eye twice a 
day as a preventative against the machinations of 
the Nihilists. No one but Baron Freedericksz knows 
the extent of the misery which he suffered until he 
returned to Russia again. Even when he was in 
England there was always a haunted look in his 
eyes, which was remarked by all who saw him. 
But we are a charitable nation, and our newspapers 
attributed the uneasy bearing of the Tsar to modesty ! 
Indeed, ofsuch a retiring disposition was Nicholas II. 
when he was in this country, that when he paid a 
visit to the house of a private individual all the in- 
mates of the household, including servants and 



24 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

guests, were inspected and cross-examined by detec- 
tives before his arrival, to ensure that no person had 
smuggled himself into the house who might shock 
the modesty of the august monarch. 

Another attribute which has been imputed to 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch by a section of the press 
in this country is humanity. We are being told 
perpetually of his ** humane intentions," and the 
Peace Conference at the Hague is trotted out as 
evidence of the truth of the assertion. There are, 
then, according to his admirers in Great Britain, 
two virtues which stand out pre-eminently in the 
character of Nicholas II.— modesty and humanity. 
Is it permissible to inquire to which of these virtues 
certain of his public acts have been due ? 

It was, of course, modesty that prompted him to 
summon the nations to a conference at the Hague. 
And it was humanity which impelled him to force 
Japan into war. But was it modesty or humanity 
which urged him on to complete the Russification 
of Finland, and to appoint General Bobrikoff as the 
instrument of his will ? To which of these virtues 
are we to ascribe the massacre of Kishineff, and the 
fiasco which followed at the trial of the murderers ? 
Knowing his own weakness, it is to be presumed 
that modesty was at the bottom of the appointment 
of M. de Plehve as Minister of the Interior. But 
was it for reasons of humanity that he drove that 
good man and capable Minister, M. de Witte, from 
his post.'* It was modesty which made him pledge 



THE PAST 25 

his word to retire from Manchuria ; but was it 
humanity that made him break it ? If so, he is 
scarcely justified by the results. Then again it is 
difficult to classify the massacre of Blagovestchensks 
under either of these virtues. Then as regards the 
flogging of women in his dominions — are we to 
ascribe the practice to modesty, or humanity ? On 
the day of his coronation three thousand people 
were crushed to death in the Khodiniskoje field in 
Moscow, was it humanity which made him attend 
the Ambassador s ball the same evening ? 

If these things constitute modesty and humane 
intentions, then I say that Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
is the most modest and the most humane monarch 
in the world. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PRESENT 

The civilised world, for reasons of sentiment or of 
policy, looks with favour on Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch and the present form of government in Russia. 
Generally speaking the civilised world is a snob, and 
dearly loves the autocrat ; and of no countries is this 
more true than of those which possess a democratic 
form of government. That is the reason why we 
hear so much fulsome nonsense about the enlightened 
reforms which the Tsar is reported to be introduc- 
ing in Russia. The pious aspirations of Nicholas 11. , 
as expressed from time to time by promises of 
amelioration of the lot of the downtrodden masses 
of his empire, find their way into the columns of the 
foreign newspapers, and excite the editors to glow- 
ing comments. The philanthropic reader lifts his 
eyes to heaven and murmurs a comfortable, " Thank 
God ! " The intimate tone of the article which he 
has read makes him feel that the Tsar is, after all, a 
very good fellow, and that he himself would have 
done very little better had he been Tsar of All the 
Russias. 

But what have all these ** reforms " amounted to 



THE PRESENT 87 

during the ten years of Nicholas IL's reign ? Or, in 
what respect are the people of Russia better off 
under the present regime than they were under 
Nicholas I. ? There is no reform in Russia, nor 
win there be until the right moment arrives. I have 
already pointed out that the liberation of the serfs 
was a mockery, and that the Zemstvos, having 
become a terror to autocracy and bureaucracy, were 
reduced to impotence in so far as their represen- 
tative faculties were concerned, by being handed 
over to the control of the governors and officials. 
That the Zemstvos have shown marked activity of 
late is a matter about which I shall have something 
to say later. My intention in referring to them 
here was merely to point out that, as a means of 
raising the social status of the people, the Zemstvos 
have hitherto been useless. As to the rest, in spite 
of gracious promises, the knout descends with regu- 
larity upon the bare backs of the moujik and his 
wife. Prisoners are still condemned without trial, 
and maltreated and shot down on their way to penal 
settlements. The fact that the railways are urgently 
wanted at present for the transport of troops and 
stores to Manchuria has increased the miseries of 
the unfortunate prisoners, who are now frequently 
kept immured in dungeons until they are on the 
verge of starvation and madness. Liberty, Justice and 
Mercy, are as unknown in Russia to-day as they were 
under Nicholas I. Bribery and corruption, savage 
cruelty and oppression, are still rampant in the land. 



28 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Here are a few examples of the existing state of 
affairs : On October 24 in Saratov twelve girls were 
outraged by soldiers. The fathers of the unfor- 
tunates complained to the authorities ; but the 
soldiers are still wearing the Tsar's uniform, whilst 
the parents of the children have disappeared, and it 
is not known what has become of them. On 
November 5 in Suwalki nine Hebrew homes were 
destroyed, two men were killed, and one young 
woman is missing. Up to the present no investiga- 
tion has been held concerning the affair by the 
police. On November 19 in the Government of 
Mogileff, a party of moujiks assembled and attacked 
the Jewish quarter, and carried off all that they could 
lay hands on. One woman, who was ill in bed with 
a child by her side, cried out for help. A moujik 
hearing her cries picked up a heavy samovar and 
hurled it at her, killing her instantaneously. 

As regards the treatment of prisoners the follow- 
ing episode, which took place in the autumn at 
Gerbinskaya, on the borders of Yakutsk, is instruc- 
tive. An officer of the name of Sirkorsky was in 
charge of a convoy of prisoners which left Alexan- 
drovsk for Yakutsk at the end of May. He behaved 
towards his party with insulting arrogance ; he was 
frequently drunk, and used to annoy the girls of the 
party with his loathsome attentions. At the halting 
station Manzurskoje, the ''politicals," irritated be- 
yond measure by the petty tyrannies to which they 
were subjected, attempted to resist his persecutions, 



THE PRESENT 29 

but were quickly reduced to submission by the 
clubbed rifles of the escort. They were then bound 
hand and foot and thrown into the carts in which 
they were carried to the next halting station. There 
was another outbreak among the '* politicals" a few 
days later, when one of them was wounded and also 
a girl, who received a bayonet thrust in the arm. 
Meanwhile the conduct of Sirkorsky towards the 
women was becoming more insufferable. He made 
a dastardly attempt to violate one of them ; but she 
escaped. The prisoners then decided that they 
must guard the women at night ; for which purpose 
they secretly obtained arms, and mounted a guard 
over the women's quarters. At Gerbinskaya Sirkor- 
sky sent two soldiers to bring R. W. (the girl whom 
he had previously assaulted) to him by force. In 
the event of resistance on her part the soldiers were 
to strip and beat her, and then to bring her to him ; 
if any resistance were made by the ''politicals," the 
soldiers were ordered to shoot the lot ! The two 
soldiers repeated their orders to the non-commis- 
sioned officer and the men of the escort, and it was 
decided that Sirkorsky's order was not to be obeyed. 
When this decision was made known to Sirkorsky 
he said nothing and went to bed. Later in the 
night, however, he got up and attempted to force 
his way into the women's quarters of the boat — the 
convoy was now proceeding by water — when the 
** political" Mark Minsky, who was then on guard 
outside the partition, fired at Sirkorsky with a re- 



80 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

volver and shot him dead. One of the escort fired 
at Minsky, slightly wounding him. The firing roused 
both the ** poHticals *' and the whole escort. The 
soldiers lost their heads, and began an indiscriminate 
fiisillade, which was stopped by the sergeant after 
one *' political" named Schatz had been killed. A 
fortnight later the convoy arrived at Yakutsk under 
the command of another officer ; and Minsky is now 
awaiting trial. 

Incidents such as these are happening daily in 
Russia in spite of the fact that de Plehve is no more, 
and Prince Sviatopolk Mirsky occupies the chair of 
the Minister of the Interior. The appointment of 
the new Minister was hailed with delight in certain 
Russian newspapers which have developed of late 
wonderfully liberal views. But before accepting the 
appointment of Prince Mirsky, and the outburst of 
liberalism in the Russian press as signs of re- 
generation, let us consider the conditions under 
which they have been sprung upon the world. 

The war with Japan had humbled Russia in the 
dust of defeat, and had absolutely discredited the 
Government in the eyes of all enlightened Russians 
and of the rest of the world. Dissatisfaction at 
home and loss of prestige abroad confronted the 
Tsar and his Bureaucracy with menacing looks. 
The spirit of discontent in Russia was manifesting 
itself in acts of violence, in desertions from the army, 
in an undefined air of unrest throughout all classes. 
The national calamities in Manchuria were uniting 



THE PRESENT 81 

all shades of liberalism, socialism, and nihilism into 
a compact body of opposition to the existing state 
of things. Then came the bomb which shattered 
de Plehve ; and the Tsar was forced to look out for 
a new^ Minister of the Interior. He chose Prince 
Sviatopolk Mirsky— a man who is popularly sup- 
posed to hold liberal-minded views ; and with his 
appointment the Russian press broke out into can- 
didly expressed liberal opinions, which certainly 
would not have been tolerated a year ago. But it is 
worthy of note that under the new era, which the 
press heralded with acclamations, there has been no 
improvement in the condition of the people, nor in 
the administration of justice, nor in the treatment 
meted out to the prisoners, nor in the spread of 
education, except that now five per cent, of the students 
at the girls' school in St. Petersburg are allowed to 
be of Hebrew race instead of three per cent. A few 
of the quite harmless exiles have been allowed to re- 
turn from Siberia — but only a few. Of words there 
has been a gallant display — of deeds an almost 
entire absence. 

The obvious meaning of the appointment of 
Prince Mirsky is that Nicholas H., fearing the 
coalition of the various sections which constitute the 
forces of discontent, chose for the post of Minister 
of the Interior a man whose known, or supposed, 
liberal tendencies would pacify the moderate 
liberals and thereby disperse the gathering storm- 
clouds of revolutictfi. 



32 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

The sudden flood of liberal literature is attribu- 
table to the same cause ; and it is also meant to 
advertise to the world the liberal mind of Nicholas II., 
who allows his editors to write just what they 
please, like any other enlightened monarch. But 
as a matter of fact, the editors of the leading Russian 
journals are writing to order to-day just as much as 
they did a year ago, or have done for the last 
century. Alexai Sergevitch Suvorin, the proprietor 
and editor of the Novoe Vremyay is a mere tool of 
the Tsar, and one of the worst Jew-baiters that 
Russia has ever possessed. If I were asked to decide 
between de Plehve and Suvorin I would have chosen 
the former. For de Plehve took a pride in his 
bloody work and did it openly ; whereas Suvorin 
is as cunning as he is old in years and infamy, and 
strikes in the dark. 

Ossip Constantinovitch Natovitch, the proprietor 
and editor of the Novosty, is a scholar and a gentle- 
man ; but he labours under the disadvantage of 
being an editor in Russia. But it matters very little 
who are the proprietors and editors of the various 
journals in Russia, since they all alike, irrespective 
of race or creed, ability or disability, come under 
the ban of the censor, and are controlled by him. 
Dangerous trades in our country are subject to in- 
spection ; in Russia printing is regarded as the most 
dangerous trade of all, and it is subjected to the 
closest surveillance. Now for all practical purposes 
the press censor in Russia is Nicholas Alexandro- 



THE PRESENT S8 

vitch, and therefore my readers can judge for them- 
selves what value is to be attached to the " informa- 
tion " which Russian newspapers supply. That the 
outcry for reform in the Russian press of to-day is 
a *'put up job" is clearly indicated by the fact that 
It would be impossible for the editors of the various 
newspapers which are agitating in the matter to 
publish their articles without the permission of the 
censor. It is not to be supposed that a large 
section of journalists in Russia would suddenly and 
simultaneously defy the censor, and publish matter 
which, a year ago, would certainly have secured 
for them a long term of banishment to Siberia. 
And if the agitation is sincere, why do the journals 
which cry out for reform remain silent concerning 
the crimes that are daily being committed by the 
Bureaucracy and the officials ? Why, if the censor- 
ship of the press has been abolished, are foreign 
newspapers in Russia still subjected to the blacking- 
out process, by which all important news concerning 
the government of that country is deleted from their 
pages? There is no doubt in my mind that the 
appointment of Prince Sviatopolk Mirsky as Minister 
of the Interior and the agitation in the press for re- 
form are both attributable to the desire of Nicholas 
Alexandro vitch to alienate the sympathies of the 
moderate liberals from the revolutionary party, and to 
impress the world at large with the excellence of his 
intentions. But we have seen Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch pose too often before to be taken in by his 



34 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

specious attitude. Let him concede but one genuine 
act of grace to his people, and we will believe in the 
sincerity of his good intentions. But so long as he 
promises and does not perform he must not expect 
even a nation of the credulity of Great Britain to 
take his bogus reforms seriously. 

In addition to the ordinary restrictions and 
annoyances to which the subjects of the Tsar are at 
all times liable, a fresh terror has arisen since the 
outbreak of the war. The whole country is infested 
with spies and blackmailing officials, who visit the 
houses of the richer classes and demand money, with 
threats of denunciation if it is not forthcoming. 
'The Poles, Finns, and Jews are, of course, the worst 
sufferers. An official spy will make his appearance 
one day at the home of some merchant or trades- 
man, and warn him that he will report him to the 
Governor as an enemy of the Tsar unless he 
receives pecuniary satisfaction. To another he will 
declare that he saw him at a secret meeting, and 
that it is his duty to make a report to the Politz- 
maister ; but that the matter can be arranged by 
payment. The unfortunate victim knows only too 
well that the blackmailer is a Government official, 
and that therefore his word will be accepted regard- 
less of any protest which he may make to the 
contrary. He is therefore compelled to pay hush- 
money for offences which he has never committed, 
or take his chance of deportation to Siberia. 

For the rest the old order of things continues. 



THE PRESENT 35 

Students are daily banished to unknown destina- 
tions without cause and without trial. Official and 
judicial corruption are rampant. Ignorance is 
fostered, and the fear of the Orthodox Church is 
over the people. There is no real change and no 
real improvement in the present state of Russia, 
and there will be none so long as Autocracy and 
Bureaucracy flourish. 



CHAPTER IV 

PUBLIC OPINION 

** Public opmion," said Plato, ** is a medium between 
knowledge and ignorance." In other words, public 
opinion is the average of private opinions. That 
does not pretend to be nearly such a good definition 
as Plato's, but it will serve, since it demonstrates 
that without the expression of private opinion 
public opinion could not exist. It is also a medium 
between tyranny and liberty ; inasmuch as tyranny 
stifles opinion, and liberty gives it full scope and 
honour. Of late we have read much in the press 
concerning Russian public opinion, and being a 
nation which regards freedom of thought and ex- 
pression as essential to existence, it does not occur 
to the average Britisher to deny to Russia the 
privileges which he enjoys. But what is Russian 
public opinion? The personification of it in our 
country is '' the Man in the Street," in Russia it is 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch. 

The Tsar has a Senate, a Ministry, and heads of 
every Ministerial Department. But who elects 
them ? The people ? Certainly not. They are 
appointed by ^* Public Opinion Nicholas," and dis- 



PUBLIC OPINION 37 

charged at his bidding. Ministers of State, Gover- 
nors of Provinces, officers of the Army and Navy, 
Commissigners of Police, doctors of Medicine, 
doctors of Law, collectors of Revenue, priests of the 
Church are all made and unmade by Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch. So long as they conform to ** pub- 
lic opinion " ^as he understands it, they are allowed 
to remain ; but let them express views of their own 
which are at variance with '' public opinion," and 
out they go. The honour of the country, the de- 
cision of peace or war, the doctrines of the national 
Church, the fiscal policy, are all settled in Russia by 
** Public Opinion Nicholas/' By means of the press, 
as we have seen, he controls the minds of his sub- 
jects, and tells them what they are to think — if they 
think at all. He arranges, through the same chan- 
nel, that they are not told things which it would not 
be good for them to hear. Where one or two are 
gathered together for private discussion on matters 
of public weal, there are his spies in the midst of 
them, and his Cossacks round about. The expres- 
sion of a private opinion in public is a crime, for 
** public opinion " is sacred and must not be gain- 
said. 

Since, therefore, the Tsar knows what is good for 
all his people, and takes upon himself the whole 
burden of their thoughts, it is interesting to observe 
along what courses '' public opinion '' in Russia is 
directing public life. The religious life, for example, 
furnishes an object-lesson. There is a great deal 



88 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of church-going in Russia ; the people are devout, 
and their nature predisposes them to piety and 
submission to the Divine Law. Here all the 
elements are in favour of Nicholas Alexandrovitch ; 
but the results are not flattering to "public opinion." 
But he manufactures saints for them. He who was 
once plain moujik Gregorevitch becomes '* St. 
Gregor " — the drunken pope may some day figure as 
" St. Ivan." Who can say but that in the course 
of time we shall not have a **St. Plehve/' and a 
" St. Bobrikoff " ? A great deal depends on whether 
the body decomposes in the grave or not in a given 
number of years. There may be other signs by 
which '' public opinion" knows a saint when he sees 
one ; but the time test is the only one I know. 

The law in Russia is similarly amenable to ** public 
opinion." To be a lawyer in Russia is no sinecure, 
for the Tsar can make and unmake laws at his 
pleasure. What is right to-day may be wrong to- 
morrow ; and the unfortunate lawyer has to keep 
pace with all the '' ukazes '' which an enlightened 
''public opinion" chooses to issue. Consequently, 
there is no great confidence in the law. 

Seeing that religion and legislation are entirely 
controlled by '' public opinion" in Russia, it is only 
natural that the same force should single out the 
men who have deserved well of their country for 
decorations and rewards. It was ''public opinion" 
who bestowed honours and promotion upon Prince 
Obolensky for flogging peasants and their wives 



PUBLIC OPINION 89 

when he was Governor of Kherson, and showed 
his appreciation of his services by appointing him 
Governor-General of Finland, in the place of the late 
lamented Bobrikofif. It was '' public opinion *' who 
decorated Colonel Gribsky for the humanity which 
he displayed at Blogovestchensks, when some 15,000 
Chinese were murdered by his orders. M. Pobie- 
donostseff, too, has to thank *' public opinion" of 
four generations for the countless stars and orders 
which he is entitled to wear. 

There was once an occasion when I myself came 
very near to receiving recognition from ''public 
opinion " in Russia. It happened thus : Some years 
ago there was famine in Russia, and a large number 
of the poor were on the brink of starvation. The 
crops were a failure, and the people in the country 
were dying before help could reach them. I was in 
America when the news of the appalling state of the 
peasantry in Russia became known. Famine relief 
funds were immediately raised both in Great Britain 
and America, and ships laden with wheat were 
despatched for the starving people of Russia. I 
found myself on one of these ships, racing our com- 
rades and death across the Atlantic. We arrived at 
last at a certain Russian port, and began at once to 
discharge our precious cargo. The day after our 
arrival it was notified to us that the Tsar had ex- 
pressed his intention of thanking us in person. When 
I heard that I told the captain that I must leave at 
once for Germany ; but the captain would not hear 



40 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of it. I insisted, declaring that nothing would 
induce me to be present at the ceremony ; and the 
captain had all my belongings locked up, so that I 
could not go. The reason that he set so much store 
on my presence was due to the fact that I was the 
only man on board who could speak Russian. So 
that not only was I compelled to attend, but I 
realised that I was to be made the '* show " man of 
the occasion ! 

In the afternoon the Tsar appeared in front of the 
hotel where we were staying — a. marble star in the 
pavement now marks the spot on which he stood. 
I made a last despairing effort to lock myself in one 
of the rooms, but I was seized and thrust forward. 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch thanked us all ; and then I 
saw to my dismay that certain members of our 
party were to receive decorations of some sort. 
Baron Grotthous and Graf Keiserling, who were 
in waiting on the Tsar, came towards me and in- 
formed me of his Majesty's intention to confer 
honours upon the leading men of the company, 
myself among them. I begged to be excused, on the 
grounds that I had done nothing to deserve so great 
an honour, and that consequently I could not accept 
it. The Baron told the Tsar of my determination ; 
and the Tsar looked surprised. Then the Baron 
came back, and said that his Majesty wished to 
know the real reason for my refusal. I told him 
that honours and decorations were not much in my 
line ; but that I was very fond of music, and was in 



PUBLIC OPINION 41 

fact an amateur violinist in my humble way. If 
his Majesty would make me a professional violinist 
I should be pleased to accept the honour. The 
Baron laughed good-naturedly and went back to his 
royal master with my request. Nicholas looked at 
me curiously, then he turned to Baron Grotthous 
and said in Russian, ** Send him to Tolstoy — they 
are both incurables ! " 

But there was no need for the Tsar's advice. 

As an example of the workings of ** public 
opinion '' in Russia, and of the enlightenment 
which results from his beneficent sway, the follow- 
ing episode is not without interest. A friend of 
mine was in the Government of Kaluga in the 
month of October. On a country road he met a 
farmer and his wife driving to the nearest post- 
office to post a letter. He entered into conversa- 
tion with the man, and, after the customary pre- 
liminaries, asked him what he thought of the war 
with Japan. The farmer was astonished to hear 
from him that Russia was at war with Japan. 

" I had heard something about a war,'' he ad- 
mitted ; *' but I understood that it was with Turkey." 

Then he drove off, muttering : 

*' What the devil do we want with Japan ? And 
I thought all along that it was those dogs' sons of 
Turks that the Tsar was fighting ! " 

Until the recent general mobilisation of the 
reserves there were millions of people in Russia 
who had never heard of the war. But the summons 



42 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

to ** fall in," delivered often in the dead of night by 
the police, has caused a dread awakening in thou- 
sands of humble homes throughout Russia. '* Public 
opinion " kept them in the dark to the last minute, 
in fear lest the men should be missing when the 
call came. 

Now when in future my readers take up their 
morning papers, and see from the columns of admir- 
able telegrams from Russia, that the Novoe Vremya^ 
or the Novosti^ or the Grashdanin, or any other 
Russian publication, has been quoting *' public 
opinion " in Russia, let them bear in mind the 
following facts : 

First, that *' public opinion " means ** Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch/' 

Secondly, that no man in Russia, with the excep- 
tion of Tolstoy, dares openly to give expression to 
opinions, public or private, which are not in accord 
with '' public opinion/' 

Thirdly, that Siberia is full of young men who 
thought that they had opinions of their own, and 
who are now more usefully employed digging and 
washing gold in the mines of the Amur and Udina. 

" A plague of opinion ! A man may wear it on 
both sides, like a leather jerkin " — so said Shake- 
speare ; but had he been a Russian he would have 
known that on the other side of the jerkin is the 
convict's coat. 



CHAPTER V 

UNREST 

To-day there is greater restlessness and dissatis- 
faction in Russia among all classes of the community 
than has ever existed in the history of that country. 
The reason is not far to seek. If a man may not 
express an opinion in the land of the Tsar there 
are, nevertheless, some who think for themselves. 
The number of thinkers in Russia has been steadily 
increasing since the days of Nicholas I. At first 
their thoughts were of no avail, for class was divided 
against class by an insurmountable barrier. The 
moujik was the moujik by himself. The merchant 
guilds, three in number, were three separate bodies. 
The upper aristocracy would have no dealings with 
the lower aristocracy. Caste distinctions isolated 
every section of the community, and the thoughts 
of the moujik were not the thoughts of the merchant, 
nor of the pettv nobleman. But the last thirty years 
have wroughc a great change in this respect. The 
points of view of the various classes are still widely 
separated, but they have, at last, all focused their 
eyes on the same object. They have discovered 
the stronghold of their common enemy. 



44 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

It is not difficult to see how this came about. 
** Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows," 
and not only with bedfellows, but with fellows out- 
side the bed as well. 

Corruption, oppression and outrageous injustice 
have weighed heavily upon all classes alike. Even 
in the governing classes the feeling of insecurity and 
the fear of arbitrary power have become intolerable, 
and cause the aristocrat to forget his birth in the 
contemplation of his wrongs. The three guilds 
have sunk their class differences. The Finnish 
nation and the Poles have stretched out to each 
other the hand of fellowship. The Jews, Lithuanians 
and Letts are of one mind in all things, except 
religion. Slowly but surely all these various in- 
terests are drawing closer to one another, and 
advancing towards the poor moujik, who is not to 
be left out ; for, when the time comes, the moujik 
is going to be a very important person. 

The silence of the march of this great army of 
discontent is now and again broken by premature 
and futile outbursts on the part of a section of the 
force. Some local influence has proved too strong ; 
some eager head has lost its balance. The students 
at the Universities are the worst offenders in this 
respect. Young, hot-headed, impetuous, they vent 
their indignation in futile processions, and are ridden 
down by police and Cossacks. The prisons in every 
Government are overcrowded, and the majority of 
the inmates are students. Poor boys ! They are 



UNREST 45 

led off to the prisons full of health and spirits ; but 
in a month's time what a change is wrought in 
them ! The bloom of health has gone, the high 
spirits are sobered. For thirty days they have 
been thinking — and now there is bitterness and 
vengeance in their souls. It is thus that Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch creates the men who will one day 
overthrow him. The pitiable part of it is, that their 
foolish demonstrations are useless to the cause 
which they are anxious to serve, nor do they help 
the thinking men who, at present, are using nothing 
but their cold unaided thoughts. 

Though, for all practical purposes the so-called 
students' riots are useless, they yet serve, in an in- 
direct way, to further the cause. Many of the 
parents of the students who have been arrested and 
imprisoned are peaceable subjects of the Tsar, and, 
for the most part, men of considerable means. But 
when they hear the fate of their sons, their wrath 
and indignation are stirred against the iniquity of the 
Government, and they become rebellious, and swear 
vengeance against the Tsar. Though the students 
themselves are harmless to the Government, their 
parents and relations will have to be reckoned with. 

For instance ; a rich iron manufacturer, Radishin 
by name, in the Government of Tambov, had two 
sons at the University of St. Petersburg. In 
September 1904 there was trouble at the Uni- 
versity, and Radishins two sons were arrested, 
and disappeared. He made inquiries for them; 



46 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

and, after spending many roubles in procuring in« 
formation, he traced one of them to a certain prison; 
but of his second son he could find out nothing. 
The officials to whom he applied pocketed his money 
with promises that he should see his son imme- 
diately ; but his son was not forthcoming. Then 
Radishin returned home. He closed his works, 
throwing hundreds of hands out of employment ; 
and converted into cash all the property that he 
could realise. He then removed to Tilsit, in Ger- 
many, near the Russian frontier. Now, for what 
purpose did he close his works, and go to Germany? 
And why did he select a town near the Russian 
frontier for his new home ? I am more than sure 
that the reason is to be found in the fact that 
Gospodin Radishin wanted to invest the nine 
millions of roubles which he brought from Tambov 
in a manner which would not be at all pleasing to 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch, and that he is anxious to 
watch the result of his investment. Those roubles 
have gone to swell the amount of a certain fund 
which has been accumulating for years in foreign 
countries, bearing interest for a purpose. 

Here is another case. A young man, Barkhanin 
by name, was studying at Odessa. He has no 
parents, but a very rich old maiden aunt, who 
treated him as her son. Some months ago a dis- 
turbance arose in Odessa, and Barkhanin was 
arrested amongst a number of other unruly students. 
There was no trial, but the boy was deported to 



UNREST 47 

some Krepost in Archangel with a number of his 
fellow students. His aunt spared neither pains nor 
money to get word of him ; but it was of no avail. 
Finding that she had been fleeced of thousands of 
roubles by the officials to whom she had addressed 
herself to no purpose, she realised her investments, 
and, leaving her home, came to London, where she 
arrived on November 17. But before she reached 
our shores she deposited in safe hands on the Con- 
tinent the sum of a hundred thousand roubles for 
the same purpose as that to which Radishin devoted 
his fortune, and a like sum in trust for her nephew, 
should he ever return. Then with the balance of 
her fortune she came to London, where she is living 
now with only one object in view. 

We have heard a great deal lately about the 
Russian University students' riots ; that my readers 
may be under no misapprehension regarding these 
disturbances, I will try to give them some idea of 
their nature, as compared with demonstrations of a 
similar kind in our country. Take Edinburgh 
University, for example, on the day when the 
Chancellor of the University is elected. A crowd 
of rantin', roarin', raw-boned Scotsmen surging 
down the old grey streets ten abreast. Fighting, 
tearing, yelling, hustling the police, smashing the 
windows which unwary tradesmen have left un- 
shuttered. *' Hating the foe, with a playing at 
hate,'' they fall upon the rival faction and exchange 
hearty blows. A few are carried on stretchers to 



48 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

the infirmary for repairs ; the rest, battered and 
torn, seek their homes — and it is over. But what 
was it all about ? Oh ! merely the election of an 
amiable gentleman to the Chancellor s chair. He 
will never interfere with the students — possibly they 
will never see him — certainly they will never speak 
to him. But it is the right thing to give him a 
lively reception — and so they do. 

Or again take a "cane rush'' of an American 
University, or **flag days" at Bonn or Heidelberg, 
and compare them with the so-called students' dis- 
turbances about which we have been reading in the 
telegrams from Russia. No comparison is possible, 
for a Russian students' demonstration resembles 
more nearly a procession of small boys in our London 
streets, decked with paper caps, and beating tin cans 
with wooden swords, to persuade themselves and the 
passers by that they are soldiers. The Russian 
students march peacefully through the streets, sing- 
ing. Sometimes they will stop outside the house of 
one of the professors, and then the gorodovoys charge 
them. If a few of the boys lose their temper and 
retaliate, the Cossacks are called out, and cold- 
blooded murder ends an exceedingly tame demon- 
stration. Such sights I have seen myself in Russia ; 
and the remembrance of my own student days has 
made me long with savage fury to join in and help 
the boys. There is no more harmless and inane 
form of amusement than a procession of Russian 
students through the streets, if they are left to them- 



UNREST 49 

selves. Student riots, of which we read, are com- 
posed of two factors — the Universities supply the 
students ; the police and Cossacks, the riot. 

But the unrest in Russia is not confined to irre- 
sponsible students. There are equally irresponsible 
labour disturbances in various parts of the country 
— the latest in Odessa. They are very mild affairs. 
A few hundreds of moujiks half full of vodka are 
only a prey for the Cossacks' knout. They are 
slashed and trampled right and left without difficulty. 
There is nothing in a Russian labour riot which can 
compare with the strike at Carnegie's ironworks at 
Pittsburg, or the Chicago railway strike, or the 
Pennsylvania coal miners' strike. The unaided 
efforts of students and labourers to assert themselves 
in Russia are dismal parodies of revolt. Ill-organised 
and ill-led, they are spiritless, half-hearted affairs. 
Centuries of oppression have rendered the Russian 
people unfit for spontaneous action ; but when they 
are properly led it is another matter. 

The difficulty which Nicholas Alexandrovitch has 
to contend with at the present is that he has not 
prisons enough to accommodate the students and 
labourers who have been arrested for disturbinor the 
peace of Russia. But he is building them as fast as 
human labour can erect them in every Government 
of his kingdom. Meanwhile, as there is no 
accommodation for the rioters, it is cheaper to let 
the Cossacks cut them down. In the month of 
August 26,000 labourers were arrested in Moscow 

D 



50 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

alone, 17,000 in the Government of Podolia, and 
1 9,000 in the Government of Kazan. In September 
the numbers were increased. In October and to 
November 15, 126,000 labouring men were arrested 
in six Governments of Russia, not mentioning 
'* politicals '' of high class. Many of these arrests 
were probably due to the mobilisation of the 
Reserves. 

The outcome of these wholesale arrests is that 
the agricultural labourers are flocking to the towns, 
to take the places of those who have been seized by 
the police. They leave the land and the crops to 
look after themselves, and, all ignorant of the 
exigencies of town life, fall an easy prey to the first 
gorodovoy who wishes to show his zeal in the 
preservation of order and good government. The 
gorodovoy has no difficulty in finding a pretext for 
carrying off the unfortunate moujik to jail. For 
people to gather in the street without permission is 
treasonable in Russia. To resist the charge of the 
murderous Cossacks is treason. In fact everything 
is treason, unless there is a Ukaze of sanction from 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch. And in the light of 
official eyes everybody is suspect, and treated as a 
pickpocket or tramp. 

Some years ago I was travelling to Kremenchug, 
and wishing to spend a few hours in Elizabethgrad, 
I left my luggage at the station, and went to the 
hotel for dinner. I had my passport in my pocket, 
but as I did not order a room at the hotel I was not 



UNREST 51 

asked for it by the proprietor. Whilst I was at 
dinner a burly official with a sword at his heels 
entered the dining-room with two subordinates 
behind him. He was the Assistant- Politzmaister, 
and he stood near the door making a careful survey 
of the room. Then he came to the table where I 
was sitting, and with a look of triumph in his eyes, 
demanded in his curtest and most official tones: 
** Vashy passport ! " ('' Your passport ! '') 
There was no attempt at civility in his manner or 
words — no ** gospodin "or ** bareen." He was un- 
compromisingly offensive, and as I had plenty of 
time at my disposal I resolved that he should pay 
for it. I began by calling his good manners in 
question in a voice loud enough for the other diners 
to hear. He flushed with anger, and answered that 
he had no time to argue with me, and that if I had 
no passport I must accompany him to the office. 
But, unlike the officer, I had plenty of time, and I 
was in no hurry to hand him my passport. So I 
reminded him that I was a traveller, and that as I had 
left my passport with my baggage he must wait 
until I had finished dinner, when he could accom- 
pany me to the railway-station. There was nothing 
for him to do but to wait, and I leisurely finished 
my meal. It was not until then that I suddenly re- 
membered that I had my passport in my pocket ; 
and, in the presence of the occupants of the room 
who were taking a lively interest in the affair, I 
handed it across the table to the Assistant- Politz- 



52 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

maister. He unfolded and looked at the precious 
document ; but as it was in English not one word 
could he read of it. However, he turned it over, 
and on the back he found the vis^ of the Russian 
Ambassador in London, and the date on which I 
crossed the frontier. The visi was enough for him, 
and he handed me back the passport with the 
question : 

" How is it that you speak like a Russian ? Were 
you born in England ? *' 

I reminded him that it was none of his business 
where I was born. The other diners were enjoying 
the scene immensely. There is nothing which gives 
greater satisfaction to the Russian mind than the 
confounding and humiliation of an official. During 
dinner they had looked at me with commiseration, 
thinking that I should certainly be marched off to 
prison when it was over. But now the faces which 
were turned in my direction all wore expressions 
of mirth and happiness, and the Assistant-Politz- 
maister pretended not to see them. As he turned 
away and went towards the door the proprietor 
of the hotel intercepted him, and I could hear 
him explaining that the least he could do was to 
apologise for the inconvenience which he had 
caused me. 

**The gentleman is not a karmantchik (pick- 
pocket) ! " he concluded. 

**Then if he is not a karmantchik he ought to 
be ! " said the Politzmaister angrily. 



UNREST 63 

In justice to the official I must state that there 
had recently been several robberies committed in 
the neighbourhood ; and no doubt he imagined that 
he had at last caught the thief, and would be able 
to share the plunder with him. 



CHAPTER VI 

CORRUPTION 

Some of my kind critics, in reviewing my book 
** Russia as it Really Is," have accused me of exag- 
gerating the evils which exist in Russia, more par- 
ticularly the wholesale corruption which permeates 
every class without distinction. Since that book 
was published, in June 1904, the British public has 
learned from various sources a great deal more 
about Russia and her government and people than 
it ever knew, or wished to know, before. In the 
light of the discoveries which people in this country 
have made from recent books and from the articles 
of correspondents in the newspapers and reviews on 
the subject of Russia, I do not think that there are 
many to-day who will accuse me of over-stating the 
case. It is now very generally admitted that the 
downfall of Russia at the hands of Japan is due to 
corruption ; and I am able to give some particulars 
which bear out this theory. 

In the month of April 1904 a sum of money 
amounting to tens of millions of roubles was handed 
over to the Grand Duke Sergius for military stores 
and supplies to the troops in Manchuria. In May 



CORRUPTION 55 

several million roubles worth of tinned meat, sugar, 
tobacco, and vodka left Moscow for the seat of war. 
The following is the route which Tamaroff, who was 
in charge of the transport of these goods, selected : 
from Moscow to Pskoff, thence to Suwalki and 
Danzig, where the goods were transferred to a ship, 
and presumably left for Manchuria by sea. But I 
happen to know that those provisions for the army 
in Manchuria were sold, at a greatly reduced rate, 
to certain merchants in Germany. 

Later in May a consignment of clothing and 
cloth styff left Moscow for the troops. On this 
occasion the Trans-Siberian Railway was employed 
as the means of transport. But when the consign- 
ment reached Samara it was reported that, owing to 
the heavy traffic over the line, a breakdown had 
occurred which would cause considerable delay. 
Some contractors at Samara, doubtless wishing to 
facilitate the working of the line, decided that it 
was not necessary to send forward such a large 
quantity of woollen goods to the troops, in view of 
the fact that it was summer weather. They there- 
fore detained the greater portion of the goods, 
which were disposed of by them in Samara. 

In June a very large consignment of medical 
appliances and comforts was despatched under the 
auspices of a charitable society to Manchuria, but 
in the third week of the same month two dealers 
from Memel bought the whole consignment for a 
little more than a tenth of its value. 



66 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

In June, again, nearly 100,000 cases of vodka 
left St. Petersburg for the soldiers in Manchuria. 
On this occasion the cases arrived safely at their 
destination in the month of July — but no vodka ! 

In August the ammunition and explosives which 
were consigned to General Kuropatkin were sold 
en route to two well-known Chinese merchants, not 
themselves Chinamen, for about half their value, and 
the powder which eventually arrived in the hands of 
the Russian army was an entirely harmless quantity. 

Now the Grand Duke Sergius was entrusted with 
the duty of forwarding these articles and munitions 
of war to their destination. I am not aware of the 
system of receipts and vouchers in use in the Russian 
army, but it is a remarkable fact that these whole- 
sale depredations should be possible and that they 
should be allowed to continue unchecked. 

The Grand Duke Alexander since the outbreak 
of the war has been entrusted with a very large 
sum of money which was subscribed for the benefit 
of the soldiers in Manchuria, and of which only a 
very small proportion has reached its destination. 
Can Alexander Michaelovitch account for the 
leakage ? > 

Then again the Grand Duke Alexander has to 
account for some Hundreds of thousands of roubles 
subscribed for the widows and orphans of the 
soldiers, which it was intended should be distributed 
direct to them, but of which not one kopek had 
been received up to the end of November. 



CORRUPTION 57 

The same Grand Duke can also explain how it 
happened that M. Bezobrazoff, who four years ago 
would not have been trusted on credit for the value 
of a box of cigars in St. Petersburg, is to-day one 
of the richest men in Russia. 

Now in order to show that punishment swift and 
sure sometimes overtakes those who have the 
handling of government stores in Russia, I will give 
an instance of minor importance as compared with 
the wholesale ** deals " to which I have referred. 
In the months of April, May, and June the Tsar 
paid for an enormous quantity of hay for the army 
in Manchuria. When the contract was completed 
and the podratchik (contractor) had been paid, an 
officer whose duty it was to check the amount 
supplied discovered that the podratchik had only 
delivered about one-third of the order, though he 
had received payment in full. Nothing would in- 
duce that officer to change his figures, and he made 
his report accordingly to his superior officer. The 
superior officer raised his eyebrows, hummed and 
hawed, and finally pointed out to his subordinate 
that he was making a very grave charge against the 
podratchik ; but that the matter should be investi- 
gated. If he proved to be right in his assertion all 
would be well ; but if not it would be a very serious 
matter for him. The next day it was found that the 
officer was wrong, and he was summarily dismissed 
from his post. Shortly after his dismissal he was 
arrested as a ** dangerous person." At this moment 



58 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

the unfortunate officer, who had no earthly right to 
be honest, is lingering in the fortress of St. Peter 
and St. Paul. 

Then there was the ^*boot scandal." The con- 
tract price was supposed to be three roubles a pair. 
The full amount of the order was actually delivered 
in Manchuria. But as the contractor had to make 
the boots for i rouble 75 kopeks he could hardly 
afford to use leather in the soles. So when 
Kuropatkin s men tried on their new boots they 
pushed their feet through the soles. Several 
podratchiks were arrested in connection with the job, 
but the man who received i rouble 25 kopeks for 
every pair of boots delivered was a Grand Duke. 

Tons of sugar which were sent to Manchuria for 
the army were found to be absolutely useless. Two- 
thirds of it was a mixture of flour and sand. Five 
contractors are in the fortress at Riga in conse- 
quence ; but the man who made money out of it 
was M. Bezobrazoff. 

In Moscow, Yaroslaff, Kaluga, and Tula flannel 
shirts and suits of clothes made from the materials 
which were given for the use of the soldiers are being 
sold openly in the shops. Even the street pedlars 
are selling the shirts from house to house. The 
story of M. Marozoff, the donor of thousands of 
blankets and other woollen goods for the army, and 
the Grand Duke Sergius, Governor-General of 
Moscow, is too well known now to need repetition. 
The attempt on the part of the Grand Duke to 



CORRUPTION 69 

blackmail M. Marozoff and the leading merchants 
of Moscow, in order to extort money from them, 
was frustrated in M. Marozofif's case at least, and 
the incident has led to complications which appear 
to have resulted in the resignation of the Governor- 
Generalship of Moscow by the Grand Duke. 

On the pretence of increasing the rolling stock 
on the Trans-Siberian railway millions of roubles 
have been stolen by high officials in St. Petersburg 
and Moscow. Millions have been appropriated for 
heavier rails, sleepers, and frogs for the permanent 
way, which have not been expended upon the line, 
though something has been done in this respect. 

This systematic wholesale corruption is frankly 
acknowledged by the Russians, as the following 
incident shows. I was travelling from St. Peters- 
burg to Kostromo. I was alone in a first-class 
carriage, but at the first station out of St. Petersburg 
the carriage door was opened, and a stately official, 
whose uniform was hidden beneath a heavy fox fur 
coat, entered my compartment. The train started 
again, and my companion, having settled himself 
comfortably, surprised me by suddenly addressing 
me in English. 

'* You are an American ? " he said. 

**What makes you think so?" I answered, with 
some curiosity. 

He pointed to my bag, on which there was a 
label of the White Star Line — New York to 
London. I told him that I had lately come from 



60 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

America ; and, the ice having been broken, we were 
soon engaged in conversation. He appeared to be 
a well-read man, and particularly well-informed con- 
cerning all the latest news in foreign countries. 
Presently he turned the conversation to Mr. 
McKinley's election, and the Bryan question of i6 
to I. Then to Tammany Hall, and I was amused 
to find that he seemed to know more of that insti- 
tution than I did. About that time several of the 
Tammany chiefs had so far overstepped the bounds 
of Tammany propriety that they had been haled 
before the court of New York City, a circumstance 
which vastly amused my travelling companion. He 
leaned back in his seat and said, with a broad smile : 

''If these Tammany chiefs had come to us here 
in Russia, and taken a few lessons from our ad- 
ministrators, they would have known better than to 
get into trouble over such a trifle. We can school 
the whole world in corruption." 

Then he handed me his cigarette case, and we 
exchanged cards ; and I discovered that my com- 
panion was the comptroller of the railway on which 
we were travelling. When he left me he said, with 
a spice of Russian humour : 

**When you return to England go and see Mr. 
Richard Croker, and tell him to come to Russia. 
We will guarantee to make him a success in a year s 
time." 

But I answered that Mr. Croker was already a 
success in New York. 



CORRUPTION 61 

Another form of corruption in Russia which is 
very remunerative to officials in high places is traffick- 
ing in commissions in the army and navy. There 
is no need for a lad at the Naval Academy of St. 
Petersburg to exert himself to acquire knowledge 
of his profession if his father has influence or if he 
is a man of wealth. After a year or so at the 
Academy, provided that the boy can smoke and 
drink, his father can get him the desired commission 
for a few thousand roubles. It is the same in the 
army, but commissions in that service are cheaper. 
As a result, a great many officers in both services 
are grossly ignorant. I have met naval officers in 
Cronstadt who knew nothing of the navigation of 
their own harbours ; but I never met one who could 
not drink vodka. 

Now in the face of all this open corruption one 
may well ask: ''What is the Minister of Justice 
doing ? " But, alas ! justice in Russia is as 
corrupt as any other department of State. The 
post of Minister of Justice was, until quite lately, 
held by M. Muravieff, but according to the latest 
reports from Russia he has tendered his resigna- 
tion. He used to be a member of a select body 
known in Russia as the '' Immortal Seven." The 
following personages constituted that illustrious 
septet : 

I. M. Pobiedonostseff ; 2. M. de Plehve ; 3. 
The Grand Duke Sergius; 4. The Grand Duke 
Alexander Michaelovitch ; 5. M. Bezobrazoff; 6. 



62 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

The Dowager Empress Marie Dagmar ; 7. M. 
Muravieff. 

M. Muravieff was Minister of Justice during the 
trial of the Kishineff murderers. It would be in- 
teresting if he would tell us how much money the 
party of Antonor and Tschekan paid for their 
liberation, as all the world knows that they were 
guilty of murder. Then as regards the robbery 
and corruption which is daily going on in connection 
with the war : M. Muravieff must have known of 
the misappropriation of the charitable funds for the 
widows and orphans, for as Minister of Justice he 
was one of the trustees of the fund. But he has 
not spoken. Whom is he sheltering? He knows 
of the ammunition robbery, and the rolling-stock 
swindle and the clothing and vodka thefts. And 
since he knew, why did he not take action whilst 
he was still Minister of Justice? 

But the Minister of Justice mutters **Nitchevo!" 
He probably holds with Cicero that ^* what is dis- 
honestly got vanishes in profligacy." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ARMY AT HOME 

The army of the Tsar in Manchuria has compelled 
the admiration of the world by the stubborn bravery 
with which it has met defeat on defeat, and has 
hitherto managed to avert crowning disaster. The 
resource and nerve of General Kuropatkin in Man- 
churia, and of General Stoessel in Port Arthur, en- 
title both these commanders to recognition in the 
pages of history, and to the gratitude of the Tsar 
and the Bureaucracy of Russia for whom they are 
fighting. Ghastly hand-to-hand conflicts, which 
were regarded by many military authorities of the 
day as things of the past, have been one of the 
features of the war, and testify to the stubborn deter- 
mination of the Russian soldiers in defence, as they 
do to the reckless dash of the Japanese in attack. 

But the mistake which the onlookers are making 
in respect to the Russian army is in the supposition 
that the Tsar can continue for an indefinite time to 
send to the front an unlimited number of men of the 
same stamp as those who have borne the brunt of 
the first ten months of the war. It must not be for- 
gotten that these troops consist mainly of old soldiers 



64 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of the standing army and Cossacks, men who have 
learnt the business of war before war broke out, who 
were either in the garrisons of Manchuria or Korea, 
or who were sent out as reinforcements in complete 
units from the standing army in Russia and Siberia, 
It is a great mistake to suppose that the Tsar can 
continue sending troops of this description to the 
seat of war for fifty years, as some people assert. 
That Russia can go on fighting for years is true 
enough; and she can draft plenty of men, but not 
soldiers. It is difficult, I know, to persuade the 
British civilian that a soldier is a skilled workman. 
He prefers to believe that one man is as good as 
another where fighting is concerned. It is a com- 
fortable belief which eases his conscience of the 
necessity of doing anything for the defence of his 
country, or of paying his professional soldiers too 
highly to do his fighting for him. But in these days 
of scientific warfare the training and skill of the 
private soldier count for much. The Russian re- 
servists, who are now being taken in thousands to 
reinforce the army in Manchuria, are poor soldiers. 
They have forgotten the few simple lessons which 
they acquired with great effort when they were in 
the ranks. For the most part they have sunk into 
loafing, unsoldierly habits ; and they have absolutely 
no enthusiasm for the war. They are deserting by 
thousands ; and by every means, from malingering 
to suicide, they are endeavouring to avoid their 
obligations to the Tsar. Yet these reservists and 



THE ARMY AT HOME 65 

the recruits are the only fighting material on 
which the Tsar can draw. I do not mean to say- 
that there are not hundreds of thousands of men of 
the standing army still in Russia ; they are there in 
their units sure enough- — ^and there they will remain ; 
for Nicholas knows better than to send them to 
the front. He cannot do without them in Russia. 
Taking the Governments of European Russia in 
alphabetical order, from Archangel and Astrachan 
a few more soldiers of the standing army can be 
drawn. From Bessarabia and Chernigov the 
Government will not dare to take any more. 
Courland is already drawn upon to the last man. 
From the Don Region and Ekaterinoslav only the 
Cossacks will be taken. From Esthonia, a few. 
Until Olonets is reached in the alphabetical list 
there are sixteen Governments from which the 
Tsar will not dare to take a regiment. Orel, 
Orenburg, Penza, Perm, Podolia, Poltava, and 
Pskov can still supply regiments of the standing 
army. I do not think that any will be drawn from 
Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Samara, Saratov, Simbersk, 
Smolensk. Only reservists will be taken from 
Tambov, Taurida, and Vilna ; but some of the 
standing army may still be had from Ufa, Tver 
and Tula. The remaining eight Governments, 
from Vitebsk to the Sea of Azov, are steeped in 
discontent, and the Tsar is unlikely therefore to 
withdraw any of the standing army from them. 
Regiments from Poland and Finland are quite out 



66 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of the question. Caucasia is longing for the with- 
drawal of her garrisons. Siberia and Central Asia 
have been bearing the brunt since the war began — 
it is a question how long they can continue to send 
regiments and drafts to the seat of war. 

I was asked a short time ago why the unfortunate 
Russian reservists were being called up, and sent 
to the front, whilst such a large proportion of the 
standing army remained at home in Russia. It was 
an easy question to answer for any one possessed 
of any knowledge of the present state of affairs of 
the country. Every Government is honeycombed 
with discontent. There is not a prison in Russia 
which is not full to overflowing. Domestic affairs 
are threatening to the last degree. Vengeance is 
on the lips of thousands — even the moujik is 
grinding his teeth, and calling for more vodka. 
Revolutionary literature in every language of the 
country is being freely distributed amongst the 
people and in the barracks, and is being eagerly 
read by those who can read and listened to by those 
who cannot. There is a powerful party in Russia, 
with an enormous sum of money to back it, only 
waiting the right moment to strike. Two of the 
chief agents of the Bureaucracy, Bobrikoff" and 
de Plehve, have been assassinated. The Zemstvos, 
which once were humble supplicants at the table of 
Bureaucracy for crumbs of self-government, have 
asserted themselves, and demand a Constitution, 
thereby showing the extent to which the landed 



THE ARMY AT HOME 67 

proprietors and the farmers have come into agree- 
ment and sympathy. Men have begun to hold up 
their heads and demand Russkoe prava (Russian 
right). Women no longer give place in the streets 
to the uniformed officials who used to jostle them 
into the roadway. There is a change coming over 
Russia ; a restless ocean of discontent heaving 
with a long ground-swell. A storm is gathering ; 
and the ship of Bureaucracy, which has ruled the 
waves for so many years, will need skilful handling 
if she is to weather the storm. 

These are the reasons why Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch sends his reservists to the front, and keeps his 
army at home. He knows that the reservists are 
with the people and for the people, whilst the men 
of the standing army are held fast in the iron grip 
of discipline, and must perforce obey. But in spite 
of the standing army in Russia, history will soon 
repeat itself. I hope no foolish queen will ask why 
the moujiks don't eat cake when they have no 
bread. 

The mobilisation of the reserve in Russia is a 
tragedy of the most heartrending description. Think 
what it means ! the calling up of these poor moujiks, 
who are often the sole supporters of families or 
parents, to be sent they know not whither, to fight 
for a cause for which they care nothing. All over 
Russia to-day the terror of pressgang hangs like a 
heavy cloud. What district will be the next to 
be ravaged ? The police are at the door in the 



68 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 



dead of night. ''Get up, Ivan, get up ; the Little 
Father has sent for you, and you must leave your 
wife and little ones, and come and serve him. What 
will become of them ? That is nothing to us. 
They must look after themselves.'' 

The Rittmaister with his frontier guards are reap- 
ing a rich harvest, for thousands are streaming over 
the borders to avoid the dread summons. 

** I see you are a reservist ! Pay a rouble and 
pass on ! " That was the formula of the police at 
the railway stations in Odessa. But those who 
could not pay were arrested and sent back. 

The following is a list of the more important 
centres from which wholesale desertions have taken 
place. The figures relate to the period from April 
to October 1904 : 



Place. Regular soldiers. 


Reservists 


Vilna 


900 


3,120 


Smolensk 


340 


1,100 


St. Petersburg 


700 


5,600 


Orenburg 


90 


612 


Orel . . . , 


1,400 


2,800 


Moghilev 


. 690 


3,200 


Minsk . . . , 


72 


1,700 


Livonia . . . , 


9 


1,400 


Kherson . . • , 


245 


4,985 


KharkofF. 


716 


14,000 


Kovno .... 


157 


16,000 


Ekaterinoslaif . 




922 


Don Region . 


/ 1,400 


7,000 


Chernigoff 


720 


3,945 


Bessarabia 


114 


967 



THE ARMY AT HOME 69 

In the month of October I am told that the 
desertions increased enormously. When I mention 
the desertions of reservists, there are included in 
the numbers those who absented themselves from 
the Voiskaja Pavinost (Conscription Tribunal). 

Stand with me on the railway station at Radzivil- 
ishki. There is a long train beside the platform 
crowded with poor reservists. The first bell has 
rung, and wives with tear-stained faces cling piti- 
fully to their husbands' necks; and the children stand 
by whimpering and holding their fathers' hands. 
The bell again. An old woman in rags caresses her 
son's face in her hands ; but she cannot speak nor 
even cry. Her heart is dead — she glares at the 
railway carriages hopelessly ; and yet she does not 
understand. Then the last summons of the bell. 
The police, stretching out their arms, join hands and 
push the people back. With a mournful shriek the 
engine drags them slowly away — away. A bitter 
cry of anguish goes up from the platform. Some one 
is down ; and a girl is bending over a body on the 
ground. It is the old woman, who has dropped 
dead. Then they disperse like silent phantoms into 
the night. 

Or again at Poltava station. The scene is the 
same — the women and children on the platform, and 
the men crowding to the windows of the locked 
carriages for a last look at those whom they are 
leaving. The station-master gives the signal to 
start; and as the train draws out a woman, maddened 



70 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

with grief, throws herself in front of the engine. 
Another and yet another dash forward and fling 
themselves beneath the quickening train. A man at 
the window sees, and with a despairing cry struggles 
to throw himself from the open casement, but his 
comrades hold him back. They push him into his 
seat with a rough sympathy which they have no 
words to express. The train clatters on its way, 
and some one in the carriage starts a song; the others 
take up the refrain half-heartedly. But the man who 
tried to throw himself through the window does not 
sing. He gets up gravely and crosses himself, and 
sits down again. The others take no notice of him, 
and in a few minutes he rises again, and crosses himself 
repeatedly. Then he kneels down on the floor of 
the carriage. He does not get up — his head falls 
back. The song breaks off abruptly, and sturdy 
hands lift him on to the seat and try to revive him. 
But there is a long blade buried to the hilt in his 
breast. And then no one sings. At the next station 
they call the guard of the train, and the body of the 
man who saw his wife throw herself on the line is 
taken out for burial. 

Such sights as these can be seen any day in 
Russia since the mobilisation of the reserves began. 
The instances which I have given are no flights of 
imagination, they actually took place ; the first on 
October i6, 1904, and the second on November 9. 
But the description of such scenes is beyond me. I 
am stupid, and my heart aches as I try to write of 



THE ARMY AT HOME 71 

them. Charles Kingsley or Victor Hugo would 
have brought them home to the reader, but I 
cannot. 

Compare the mobilisation of the reserves in 
Russia with the call to arms of the United States 
when war broke out with Spain. President McKinley 
made himself the most unpopular man in America 
because he was compelled to refuse the services of 
hundreds of thousands of men of all classes who 
wanted to go to the war. Those who were accepted 
considered themselves very fortunate, and the re- 
jected felt the humiliation keenly. Again, take the 
mobilisation of the reserves in our own country 
during the South African War, when 98 per cent, 
responded to the summons, and volunteers from 
every quarter of the Empire offered themselves. 
We do not hear of the Russian reservists crowding 
round the St. Petersburg War Office and demanding 
to be sent to Manchuria ; nor have we any reason 
to believe that those who have not yet been mobilised 
have felt insulted. Wherein lies the difference ? 
National temperament is certainly not enough to 
account for it. The reservists of Great Britain, 
like those of Russia, were called upon to leave their 
wives and families without a bread-winner. Here, 
too, there were many stricken hearts at parting. 
And yet there is all the difference in the world 
between the two mobilisations — a difference for 
which I shall leave the reader to account. 

As I have said before, there are people in this 



72 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

country who assert that Russia can carry on the war 
for fifty or even a hundred years, and still have 
plenty of men and funds left to continue fighting. 
I maintain that Russia cannot keep it up for more 
than five years. That is certainly a big drop from 
fifty or a hundred years ; but I will justify my 
statement. 

Russia at the present time has to maintain in 
Manchuria an army of a million men. I fancy I 
can hear my readers say that I must be dreaming — 
and the eager critic congratulating himself on a 
windfall of inaccuracy. Of course, reader and critic 
alike know that there are not in Manchuria to-day 
more than 300,000 Russian troops at the outside ; 
probably 250,000 is nearer the mark. Very good. 
1 have not stated that there are more than 250,000 
men under General Kuropatkin in Manchuria. I 
merely said that Russia has to maintain an army of 
a million — that is to say, to pay for an army of a 
million. If there are at the present time 250,000 
men under Kuropatkin, there are Grand Dukes, 
officials, contractors, and various lesser thieves in 
Russia drawing on the Government for four times 
that number — in Russia they call it na chai (for 
tea). From a pair of boots to be delivered to a 
battleship in Cronstadt it is na ckaiy gospodin ! 

It is quite a long way from St. Petersburg to 
Manchuria, and na chai begins at St. Petersburg 
and crops up at intervals all the way. Grand Dukes 
and other officials must live, and they cannot live by 



THE ARMY AT HOME 73 

bread alone, therefore it is na ckai. At Moscow 
there are more Grand Dukes and officials ; with 
them it is also na chai^ gospodin! On leaving Moscow 
only tea dust is left ; but pilfering fingers at Tula, 
Penza, Samara, Ufa, Omsk scrape up the remnants ; 
and by the time that it arrives in Manchuria only 
the empty tea chest remains. And Kuropatkin 
smiles and mutters : ''To Nitchevo ! Let us be 
thankful for what we have not received ! " 

Thus it happens that Russia has to pay four or 
five times over for what she actually does not 
receive. And that is what I mean when I say that 
to-day she is maintaining an army of a million men 
in Manchuria. Kuropatkin will require another 
million before he can hope to defeat the Japanese 
army opposed to him and drive them back into the 
sea. It is a question of how long Russia can pay 
for this vast army of '^ineffectives " at the seat of 
war, from her already depleted treasury. 

There is a silver lining to every cloud, and 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch has discovered the silver 
in the war cloud which hangs over him ; for the war 
has enabled him to solve a great problem which had 
sorely tried his predecessors for generations, and 
that is the Jewish question. This is how he is doing 
it. The population of Bessarabia is 1,933,900, of 
which 1 67^827 are Jews ; Christian soldiers in Man- 
churia about 6 per cent, of the population, Jewish 
soldiers 21 per cent. The Government of Vilna : 
Population, 1,791,900; Jewish population, 175,997; 



74 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Christian soldiers in Manchuria, 2^^ per cent. ; Jewish 
soldiers, 1 9 percent. Moghilev: Population, 1,790,041; 
Jewish population, 151,056; Christian soldiers in 
Manchuria, 3 per cent ; Jewish soldiers, 18 per 
cent. And so on throughout the Governments of 
Russia where Jews, perforce, must congregate. It 
is a plan almost as simple as the populating of 
Provinces by the wholesale deportation of moujiks, 
which he carried on with so much success before the 
war broke out. Really, Nicholas Alexandrovitch is 
a very ingenious and well-meaning young man ! 

It is the same with the Jewish doctors. From St. 
Petersburg 150 physicians have been sent to the 
front, of whom 90 are Jews! I cannot refrain from 
quoting a Central News telegram: **The RusSy 
whose editor is the son of the proprietor of the 
Novoe Vremya, states : * The first detachment of the 
Red Cross had a doctor at Wa-fang-kau who re- 
fused to retire, and when remonstrated with said : 
** I shall leave when I have finished binding the 
wounds of all the soldiers ! " This doctor is from 
Kieff, and I have the honour to inform the Novoe 
Vremya that he is one of the ** dirty Jews." '" 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SEAT OF WAR 

From the contemplation of the present state of 
affairs in Russia let us now turn to the Far East, 
and glance briefly at the army on active service in 
Manchuria. I do not think that modern history has 
a parallel to the present war for ferocity and callous 
cruelty on the part of the Russian army— not so 
much towards the foe with whom they are fighting, 
as to their own men and the unfortunate inhabitants 
of the country which is the battle-field of the oppo- 
sing forces. Drunkenness, debauchery, gambling, 
are the pastimes of all ranks at Harbin and 
Mukden, more especially oi the officers. In 
action, incompetence, indifference and stoicism are 
the prevailing features. The officers, for the most 
part, show no regard for the comfort or lives of 
their men, who are herded in crude formations into 
the firing line to repel the attacks of the Japanese. 
War is a desperately cruel game at all times ; but 
when it is pla) ed without skill and in the spirit of 
indifference as to the outcome, it becomes a ghastly 
carnage on the altar of Moloch. Bravery and self- 
sacrifice and the other noble traits in human nature 



76 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

which war discovers, often in unlooked-for places, 
are lost to sight in the reeking smoke of the 
sacrifice. 

Now let me take some of the evidence before me, 
and descend from generalities to particulars. First 
then General SassuHtch comes under notice, sur- 
rounded by a staff of boys from St. Petersburg and 
Moscow in their new uniforms- The scene is on the 
banks of the Yalu, at the beginning of the war. The 
General and his officers are full of confidence ; 
champagne is still plentiful ; and in the intervals of 
duty the officers find time to fleece each other at 
cards in their quarters. When they are tired of 
cards, or have lost all their money, there are other 
diversions. The women of the country may not be 
quite to the young dandies' tastes, but they will 
serve ; and the fact that they are unwilling adds a 
zest to the escapade. They have plenty of time on 
their hands, for it would be absurd to fortify the 
strong position above the banks of the river, or to 
entrench themselves. Far away to the South it is 
said that there are some Japanese soldiers coming 
towards them. When they arrive they will be 
wiped off the face of the earth ; and then the officers 
can go back to Mukden on leave, and drink 
champagne in the hotels all day long, and tell the 
regiments quartered there of their glorious victory. 

But one day the Japanese came, and, attacking 
them in front and on the flank, swept them back 
with heavy loss from the hills above the Yalu. 



THE SEAT OF WAR 77 

General Sassulitch was sitting in his portable shelter, 
meditating on the strange thing which had happened 
to his force. How was he to know that the Japanese 
would cross the river by a ford four or five versts 
away, which he had never thought of watching ? 
From time to time reports were brought of the 
progress of the fight, and when at last the heavy 
list of casualties was made known to him, he 
exclaimed : 

^^Nitckevo ! We will destroy the yellow monkeys 
soon enough. What is the use of troubling ? " 

He still had unlimited faith in the Cossacks, and 
he despatched a soUiia of them to attack the 
Japanese. But the sotnia never returned. The 
fate of the Cossacks was reported to him, and he is 
said to have answered callously : 

'' What ! Only one sotnia ? " 

Then there is the aristocratic General Baron 
Stackelberg, who lost, by atrocious generalship, 
the battle of Wa-fang-kau. On this occasion he 
despatched a regiment to attack an imaginary force 
of Japanese. The commander of the regiment, 
naturally enough, failed to understand the order, 
and, wishing for more explicit instructions, asked 
the General where he was to lead his men. 

** Lead them to Hell ! " Stackelberg shouted. 
And the commander obeyed. 

General Stackelberg spares no pains to ensure 
his own comfort in the field. When train-loads of 
wounded soldiers were being brought into Mukden, 



78 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

and some of the men were perishing for want of 
water, Stackelberg had a rota of soldiers pouring 
the precious liquid on the roof of his saloon to keep 
him cool. 

Here is another story from Wa-fang-kau. A 
company of Russian soldiers, with success within 
their grasp, refused to take advantage of the situa- 
tion, and began to retreat. The officer in command 
called upon them to rally, assuring them that the 
position was won and that victory was theirs. He 
was told: *' If this is victory — go and take it!*' 
And the retreat continued. Seeing that it was 
hopeless to attempt to bring his men on again, the 
officer fired his revolver into his demoralised com- 
pany, and, keeping the last cartridge for himself, 
blew out his brains. 

There is a battle going on in Manchuria quite 
independent of the Japanese. It is a battle royal 
amongst the Russian officers themselves. Pro- 
fessional jealousy und intrigue are rampant in the 
army. In the struggle for place and power no 
scruples and no principles of honour are observed. 
The Tsar, at the conference at the Hague, brought 
forward no suggestions regarding warfare of this 
description, and therefore the combatants are at 
liberty to use whatever weapons they can lay hands 
on. Calumny and spying on the movements of 
adversaries are among the methods employed. 
The Russian colonel to whom I referred in the 
opening chapter deserted on account of the 



THE SEAT OF WAR 79 

intolerable system of spying to which he was sub- 
jected by a jealous superior. He would rather work 
;'is a farm labourer in the Argentine Republic, he 
told me, than hold a commission in the Russian army. 
Desertion at the front both among officers and men 
is rife, and it is not merely individual desertions, 
bodies of men, sometimes with their officers, going 
over the border into China and distributing them- 
selves there. 

War drags the mask from the souls of men — the 
mask which civilisation and convention compel man- 
kind to wear, to hide alike what is unseemly and 
what is good in human nature — and we see the real 
creature as he is, with all his glaring contrasts and 
anomalies. The laws of God and the superstructure 
of custom which man has built upon them give 
place to the compelling force of discipline ; and if 
that is swept away no restraints remain, and man 
reverts to his primordial state. And what sort of 
animal is he ? A wild beast with a conscience. 
Cruel, savage, lustful, loving, self-sacrificing, heroic 
— a mass of contradictions and unaccountable irre- 
gularities. 

Take this scene from Liao-yang railway-station, 
to the accompaniment of the roar of the guns on the 
plain. The wounded are pouring in from the front, 
mangled, torn, bleeding in the throes of unspeakable 
pain, in the agonies of death. They are laid in rows 
on the platform to await transport to the North, 
and sweet Sisters of Charity move among them 



80 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

ministering to them. A priest with crucifix in hand 
mumbles perfunctory prayers to the dying. Close 
by a party of Cossack officers are seated round a 
table drinking champagne and joking. Their shouts 
of ribald laughter mingle with the groans and shrieks 
of the wounded ; the pop of the champagne corks 
answers to the boom of the guns without. **Let us 
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die " — as these are 
dying beside them. Nitchevo ! But most in- 
congruous of all are the painted prostitutes who loll 
at the table with the officers and ply them with drink 
and caresses. 

Or this, from the camp, where a war correspon- 
dent is sitting in his tent. A famished soldier 
staggers to the entrance and looks in. 

'* What do you want ? '' 

'' For three days we have had nothing to eat." 

** Here, then, eat this." 

'* I can't eat.*' 

^^ Why not?" 

" There is an officer with me, and he is worse off 
than myself." 

'' Very well, call him in too." 

** He won't come. He is ashamed. Let me 
take some food to him — he will be grateful." 

These are stories related by war correspondents 
in the press. They may therefore be accepted as 
representing faithfully the state of affairs at the front. 
It was a leading Russian correspondent who deplored 
the fact that officers on their way to join their regi- 



THE SEAT OF WAR 81 

ments treat the Sisters of Mercy as they are accus- 
tomed to treat women of the class that follows in the 
rear of the army. It is as well that the world should 
know something of the seamy side of the war, and 
not be always fed on glowing panegyrics of bravery 
and showy heroism. It is to the interior economy 
of the war, and not to the clash of battle, that we 
should look for the true state of an army. Bravery 
is an estimable quality ; but it does not decide the 
fate of wars. A hundred other factors have to be 
reckoned with, and in many of these the Russian 
army is woefully deficient. 

The defence of Port Arthur is exciting the admira- 
tion of the world. Very good. But the Russians 
themselves declared it to be impregnable ; and so it 
would have been, but for inefficiency and corruption. 
The natural advantages of the position, strengthened 
by field works and permanent fortifications, and 
manned by well-trained and disciplined troops, 
would have offered insuperable obstacles to all 
attacks. But, good soldier and commander as 
General Stoessel undoubtedly is, he has been 
unable to prevent the capture of important positions 
in the main line of his defence, which must soon 
lead to the fall of the whole fortress. Fully pro- 
visioned, with armament and ammunition complete, 
with a garrison efficiently trained in the use of gun 
and rifle, and with the enthusiasm of a good cause 
to inspire it. Port Arthur could have held out for 
years. But these essentials were lacking — and so 



82 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

there is nothing left for the brave defenders to do 
but to fight Hke rats in a pit. Not for an hour will 
General Stoessel and his fort commanders allow the 
fighting to cease ; for they know that if an armistice 
were declared, they could no longer prevent the 
garrison from flocking over to the Japanese and 
surrendering. Only recently it was reported that 
an armistice had been arranged to bury the dead ; 
but apparently the Russians did not take advantage 
of it, the fort commanders refusing to allow their 
men outside the perimeter of the works. Like 
galley slaves, the men are kept in the trenches 
night and day. There they must remain, and there 
they must die when the Japanese with fanatical 
valour storm over the parapets. There is a second 
line behind them to keep them steady ; but should 
they fall back before the fierce onslaught of the 
attack, then the fire of the second line is turned in- 
discriminately on friend and foe alike. The trenches 
are their last home and their grave — they may never 
return from them. General Stoessel and his officers 
are well advised to keep an incessant watch on the 
men of the garrison ; for some have already escaped 
and sold information to the besiegers — I have direct 
evidence on this point, or I would not make the 
statement. Be it remembered that the Russian 
soldier has no enthusiasm for this war, and no 
patriotism to restrain him from such despicable 
actions ; on the other hand, the brutal treatment 
which he receives from his officers makes his service 



THE SEAT OF WAR 83 

of the Tsar one prolonged misery ; and in the ex- 
ample which they set him he sees no incentive to 
honesty. 

In Russia, of course, and in the press of some 
European countries, desperate efforts are being 
made to conceal the real state of affairs at the seat 
of war, and to present the Russian chances of success 
in glowing colours. The reasons for this misrepre- 
sentation of the facts are obvious ; but who are the 
men responsible for the deception ? Certainly not 
the outspoken M. de Witte, nor Count Lamsdorff, 
nor any far-seeing man in Russia who can appreciate 
the danger which threatens the country in the pro- 
longation of the war. The men who are striving to 
blind their own eyes and the eyes of the people of 
Russia are the Grand Duke Alexis, the Grand Duke 
Vladimir, the Grand Duke Alexander, and the 
Grand Duke Sergius, together with the whole 
Bureaucracy of Russia. They have already robbed 
the moujik of all save his rubashka and coarse canvas 
trousers, and they have no scruples about sending him 
to stop Japanese bullets in Manchuria so long as 
they can persuade the world that success must 
eventually crown the Russian arms. Since the war 
began they have pocketed millions of roubles of 
contract money and charitable funds, so they may 
well cry, ** Vive la guerre ! " But there are other 
reasons why they desire the continuation of the 
war. One is that success is the only escape for 
Bureaucracy from the vengeance of the nation. 



84f THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

The other I shall deal with fully in a subsequent 
chapter. 

No one knows better than that honest old soldier, 
General Kuropatkin, that he is fighting a losing 
game — and nothing can make it otherwise. There 
is something very pathetic in the excerpts from his 
despatches which are issued for publication. He 
has evidently been told that he must make the best 
of things in his reports to St. Petersburg, and so 
the poor man tells pretty little stories of Rus- 
sian bravery — how a company of Japanese were 
routed by a sotnia of Cossacks, or how a recon- 
noitring patrol of the enemy were repulsed with 
loss by an outpost picquet. He must envy the 
dignified silence of Marshal Oyama, which is only 
broken to speak of important developments in the 
campaign. 

Like so many of his subordinates, General 
Kuropatkin has two campaigns on his hands : one 
in Manchuria against the Japanese ; the other in 
St. Petersburg with the forces of calumny and 
jealousy. He is more likely to meet his Waterloo 
in St. Petersburg than in Mukden. It was stated 
that the friends of Kuropatkin were elated when 
Admiral Alexeieff was recalled from Manchuria ; 
but it seems to me that it was about the worst 
thing that could happen to him. So long as 
Alexeieff was in Manchuria, Kuropatkin could keep 
one eye on the Japanese generals, and with the 
other he could watch Alexeieff. But now his enemy 



THE SEAT OF WAR 85 

is in St. Petersburg, where he can whisper his 
calumnies and insinuations into the ear of Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, which is always open to the latest 
breeze. 

Poor Kuropatkin ! Is there a soldier in the world 
who would change places with him ? 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 

In the last chapter I gave two good reasons for the 
Grand Dukes and the Bureaucracy of Russia wishing 
to continue the war, and I stated that there was a 
third to be dealt with later. I shall, therefore, 
endeavour to throw some light on the real cause of 
the war in this and the following chapters, and show 
that the prolongation of the hopeless struggle is 
due in a great measure to the same cause. There 
are many questions of the day which are never 
satisfactorily answered. They are left over for the 
historian to solve. But the historian is at a disad- 
vantage in point of time ; many of the lesser 
circumstances which contributed to the question 
are unrecorded and forgotten ; and he is obliged 
to leave it as open as he found it. 

The question which is exercising the minds of 
a very considerable portion of humanity at this 
moment is : " Why did not the Tsar of Russia 
evacuate Manchuria in accordance with his promise, 
and, by so doing, save Russia from a disastrous 
war ? " I can throw some light on this question ; 
and I shall do so in the hope of rendering assistance 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 87 

to the perplexed minds of to-day and to the puzzled 
historians of to-morrow. 

In the first place it is necessary to glance briefly 
at the inner circle of the Tsar s palace, and estimate 
the influence of the various members of the Imperial 
family. I wish to avoid, so far as possible, all refer- 
ence to the private lives of Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
and of the members of his household. I am not 
concerned with their private lives ; it is only as 
the Tsar of All the Russias that Nicholas II. in- 
terests me ; and it is only in so far as the private 
actions of the house of Romanoff have influenced its 
policy that I mean to mention them. 

I must preface the narrative which follows with a 
word of explanation. Some of the facts which I 
am about to relate are already known to the world, 
others are only known to a few. If the reader 
wishes to know how I obtained my information, I 
can only answer in the words of Diogenes, the 
cynic, who, when, arrested by order of Philip of 
Macedon and asked if he were a spy, replied : 

" Certainly I am, O Philip ! A spy of thine ill 
counsel and folly, who, for no necessity, canst set 
thy life and kingdom on the chances of an hour." 

During the many years which I have spent in 
Russia I acted as a spy. I was employed by no 
King nor by any Government. I was in no man's 
pay. I was a spy for my own information and 
satisfaction, guided by my own free will, and report- 
ing to my own conscience. 



88 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

First, then, there is Nicholas Alexandrovitch him- 
self, the head of the house of Romanoff. Weak, 
obstinate at times, fickle, a lover of flattery, a 
dreamer of dreams of good intentions — but only a 
dreamer, unstable, and with a goodly share of the 
intolerance of his ancestors. The Tsaritsa, his 
most estimable and devoted wife, is the mother of 
four daughters, and, at last, of the long-desired heir 
to the throne. But beyond this important fact she 
has no influence on the destinies of Russia, nor does 
the Tsar seek her counsel and advice. She is a 
good and amiable woman — and an unhappy one. 

Of a very different stamp is the Dowager Empress 
Marie Dagmar. Self-willed, arrogant, and gifted 
with a violent temper, she exercises the most power- 
ful influence over Nicholas. It is no secret that she 
regarded the marriage of her son unfavourably at 
the last minute, though she would seem to have 
acquiesced in it before. She clings tenaciously and 
fanatically to the memory of her husband, Alex- 
ander III., and forces his policy upon her son, who, 
had he been left to his own counsels, would have in- 
stituted probably a more enlightened administration. 
But the influence of his mother was too strong for 
him, and many of the appointments which he has 
made have been made under her direct commands. 
M. Pobiedonostseff", Procurator of the Holy Synod, 
owes his continuation in office to the Dowager 
Empress. He had served Alexander II. and Alex- 
ander III. — therefore he must also be the first 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 89 

adviser to Nicholas II. Siphyaghin, Goremykin, 
de Plehve, Muravieff, Bezobrazoff, Alexeieff, Obo- 
lenski, and many other notorious men, are all in- 
debted to the Dowager Empress for their appoint- 
ments. It is true that the influence of the Dowager 
Empress does not relieve Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
of one particle of his responsibility, but it is a factor 
which has been of incalculable importance during 
the ten years of his reign. 

Nicholas 11. has also many uncles. Grand Dukes, 
on whom, with nepotic piety, he has conferred 
important oflfices of State, which bring them in sub- 
stantial salaries besides '* perquisites" — and perqui- 
sites in Russia is a word of unlimited meaning, as 
the state of the navy and the scarcity of military 
and other stores clearly indicate. 

The Dowager Empress and the Grand Dukes 
have introduced into the Court circle men of the 
calibre of Admiral Alexeieff, Prince Mescherski, M. 
Bezobrazoff, and many more of the same kind. It 
was the Grand Duke Alexander who appointed M. 
Bezobrazoff to the Russo-Chinese Bank, and thereby 
started him in life as a company fH*omoter, with 
results which will hereinafter be related. 

Now in the year 1898 there came to our shores 
from St, Petersburg a party of Russian noblemen 
and engineers, under the guidance of a certain 
prince. They settled themselves in hotels in the 
West End of London, and since they had not 
come to England for amusement they proceeded to 



90 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

business. The object of their visit was to induce two 
capitalists in London to invest in gold mines on the 
Lena in Siberia. Now these two capitalists knew 
something of the district which was pointed out to 
them on the map as the area in which the gold 
mines were situated ; they also knew that a certain 
Ratkofif Rajnoff, ex-Burgomaister of St. Petersburg, 
owned large tracts of gold-bearing land in that 
district ; and they concluded that their capital was 
required to help forward the schemes of the said 
Ratkoff Rajnofif. Furthermore, they knew some- 
thing about the ex-Burgomaister and, in con- 
sequence, would have nothing whatever to do with 
the scheme. Seeing how matters stood, the spokes- 
man of the party informed the capitalists that they 
were mistaken in supposing that M. Rajnoff was 
the owner of the property in question ; that, as a 
matter of fact, it belonged to a lady, who was no 
other than the Dowager Empress of Russia. But 
the mere propinquity of Ratkoff Rajnoff to the 
scene of the enterprise had alarmed the capitalists, 
and in spite of the exalted name of the owner they 
still held back, and the transaction collapsed. There 
is no reason why the Dowager Empress of Russia 
should not own tracts of gold-bearing land in 
Siberia, nor do I wish to cast any reflections upon 
her for endeavouring to obtain the necessary capital 
for working her mines in England. I have referred to 
this matter simply because it was the first of a series 
of similar transactions which came under my notice. 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 91 

About SIX months after there came to London a 
Russian Count with a German name, who spoke 
French and wore clothes made in Bond Street. 
He represented a Russian syndicate which had a 
concession to build a railway from Vyatka to the 
Ural Mountains, also steamers for river navigation 
and iron works. To assist him to procure the 
necessary capital in England for these vast under- 
takings he engaged the services of a certain Jewish 
company promoter, whom I will call Morris. But 
British capital was not forthcoming, and Morris 
represented to the Count that the British public 
would not ** come in'' unless the company were 
registered at Somerset House. Now the Count 
was a poor man, and he was not acting for himself 
in the matter. The members of the syndicate 
which employed him were, for the most part, also 
members of the Russian Imperial family, and the 
man who was put forward as managing the affair 
in St. Petersburg was the first secretary to M. de 
Witte, but, as a matter of fact, he was only a cat's- 
paw in the business. To him the Count applied 
for the necessary funds to register the company in 
London on the understanding that English money 
would be forthcoming on registration. M. de Witte's 
secretary sent seven thousand pounds to the Count, 
and the company was duly registered at Somerset 
House, but still no English capital was subscribed. 
The Count was in despair, and consulted with the 
Jewish promoter, who assured him that the war in 



92 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

South Africa was responsible for the backwardness 
of British capitalists. But that was poor comfort 
to the members of the Imperial family, who had 
sunk large sums of money in the syndicate, and 
the Count realised that he dared not return to 
Russia with such an excuse. Then Morris 
suggested that the Count should go to Paris and 
see what could be done there. Accordingly the 
Count, with a hanger-on whom he had brought 
with him from St. Petersburg, whom we will call 
Remyekin, and Morris all crossed the Channel and 
settled themselves in a hotel in Paris and set to 
work to collect capital for the Imperial Syndicate. 

In the same hotel there was an American who 
appeared to be spending money lavishly, and whose 
cheques were honoured for large amounts. The 
Count became acquainted with the American, and 
it was not long before they were on intimate terms. 
Before a week was over the American had entrusted 
the Count with some money for investment in the 
great undertaking which he was endeavouring to 
float. 

The Count and Morris and the hanger-on kept 
their expensive rooms at the hotel, until one fine day 
the manager took it into his head to present his little 
bill. Now the Count is an honest man ; but at the 
time it happened that he did not possess the nine 
thousand francs which were necessary to pay the 
hotel account. So he told the manager that his bill 
could not be paid until he received remittances from 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 98 

St. Petersburg. The manager gave him three days 
in which to find the money, and instructed his 
servants that nothing more was to be supplied to the 
Count and his party without payment. 

In the meantime the Count sent Remyekin to 
St. Petersburg for more money, on the pretence 
that subscriptions were beginning to come in, but 
that fifteen thousand roubles were necessary for 
current expenses. Remyekin presented the Count s 
request for money to M. de Witte's secretary, who, 
as I have already explained, was simply a figure- 
head and knew nothing about it. He told Remyekin 
that he must wait until he had seen certain parties 
and had laid the matter before them. Eventually 
Remyekin received a favourable answer, and tele- 
graphed to the Count in Paris that he is returning 
with fifteen thousand roubles. The Count handed 
the telegram to the manager of the hotel, who agreed 
on the strength of it, to give the Count a week s 
credit. It was four days before Remyekin received 
the money, and on the fifth he started for Paris. 
Before handing the fifteen thousand roubles over to 
the Count he deducted three thousand which he 
had advanced to the syndicate for expenses, telling 
the Count that he had been obliged to pay it away 
in St. Petersburg. 

However, the hotel bill was paid, the Count pro- 
testing that he was mightily affronted at the be- 
haviour of the manager, that he was a Russian 
nobleman in the service of the Imperial family of 



9* THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Russia, and that he was entitled to be treated with 
more courtesy and respect. The manager bowed 
again and again, asked a thousand pardons, and 
promised unlimited credit and abject service in the 
future ; until at last the Count deigned to forgive 
him, and promised to continue his patronage. 

The following night the Count gave a dinner 
party at the hotel. Among the guests invited were 
Morris, Remyekin, the American, the son of a 
certain ex-official of Petersburg, and a few cele- 
brated Russians who happened to be staying in 
Paris at the time. It was a resplendent entertain- 
ment, such as only Russians can give when they 
don't know how in the world they are to pay for it. 
Several of the guests had decorations and crosses 
on their coats, and one wore a broad parti-coloured 
riband across his shirt front. The American, though 
he was possessed of plenty of dollars and a good 
digestion, felt decidedly cheap in the presence of so 
much splendour. Dinner over, coffee and cigarettes 
were served ; and then to business. A Russian 
nobleman, who possessed not one cent in the wide 
world, and did not even know who would give him 
credit for his next meal, announced that he intended 
to subscribe a hundred thousand roubles to the 
Count's company. Whereupon the gentleman with 
the parti-coloured riband rose and addressed the 
meeting : 

'' I hear, your Excellency, that my friend Baron 
Briuloff has subscribed a hundred thousand roubles 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 95 

to your company. As you know, my dear Count, 
we, all true and good Russians, feel honoured in 
being associated with the affairs of our Imperial 
family. 1 have much pleasure in subscribing fifty 
thousand roubles/' 

He sat down amid thunderous applause, and the 
son of the Petersburg official jumped up, and 
demanded to be entered for fifty thousand more. 
Whilst this was going on Morris and the American 
were talking quietly together of the prospects of 
the company, and of the distinguished Russian 
gentlemen who were taking up the shares with so 
much confidence. More champagne and liqueurs 
were ordered, and when the enthusiasm of the 
guests was at its height, the son of the Petersburg 
official jumped up again, and declared that, as he 
was leaving Paris the next day, he hoped the Count 
would accept a cheque from him for one-fourth of 
the amount of his shares, as a token of good faith. 
Whilst he was drawing the cheque a telegram was 
handed to the Count, who opened it with a great show 
of indifference, as though he were annoyed at the 
interruption of his social duties. Having read it, he 
handed it to Baron Briuloff. The effect of the 
message on that gentleman was electrical. Pushing 
over his chair he rushed towards the Count, and 
throwing his arms round his neck, kissed him fer- 
vently. The message was passed from hand to 
hand ; and soon all the guests, except Morris and 
the American, were in each others arms. The 



96 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

contents of the slip of paper which had caused such 
a stir were as follows : 



" St. Petersburg. 6 p.m. 
'' Count 

^' Take notice that Grand Duke Sergius has 
subscribed for 1,000,000 roubles. Princess Natalie 
for a like sum. More particulars follow by post. 
Reserve stock to the amount of 12,000,000. — 

LiTOVITCH.'' 

When the American read that telegram he was 
completely dazzled. His only fear was that there 
might not be any shares left for him beyond the few 
which he had already subscribed. He approached 
the Count diffidently, and requested to be allotted 
fifty thousand shares, promising to pay down ten 
per cent, immediately, and to get some of his 
countrymen to come into the company, if more 
capital were required. The Count was more than 
happy to oblige him, and before the party broke up 
the American was the hero of the hour. The guests 
stayed until an early hour in the morning, toasting 
the Tsar and the Imperial family — and the American, 
whom they saluted as Nashi Americanitz (Our 
American). When at last the party broke up, Mr, 
Morris took the American for a long walk before 
they retired for the remaining hours of the night, 
during which he expatiated to him on the brilliant 
future which lay before the shareholders of the great 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 97 

company, and of the favours which they might 
expect to receive from the hands of the Tsar of All 
the Russias. 

For some months after the eventful night the Count 
and Morris and the hanger-on remained at the hotel 
in Paris ; but the American went to London, and 
settled himself at the Savoy Hotel. At last, the 
Count and his party, having exhausted the possi- 
bilities of Paris without obtaining any substantial 
additions to the capital of the company, returned to 
London, and renewed the acquaintance of the 
American, who still had unbounded faith in the 
company. The Count reminded him of his promise 
to secure American support for the undertaking, 
and he at once began to induce his countrymen in 
London to join in. Among his friends was a wealthy 
Chicago man, who was staying at the same hotel as 
himself. Now the man from Chicago had brains as 
well as money, and, though he was never inclined to 
let pass a good opportunity of making more money, 
he invariably brought a sound business capacity to 
bear on the matter ; and being a good republican, he 
put no faith in Princes, Dukes, Counts or company 
promoters, as his guileless friend did. He allowed 
himself, however, to be introduced to the Count, 
who was highly delighted to make his acquaintance ; 
and the conversation soon turned to the absorbing 
topic of the great company. 

When the Count had taken his departure the 
Chicago man asked his friend how much money he 

G 



98 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

had invested in the undertaking, and various other 
questions of a searching nature, to all of which the 
American replied by enumerating the titles and 
decorations of the distinguished Russian noblemen, 
whom he himself had met at the great dinner in 
Paris, all of whom were subscribers to the company, 
and wound up triumphantly with the telegram from 
Petersburg which had been the cause of so great 
rejoicing on that occasion. The Chicago man 
remarked that he was very glad to hear it. 

Two days passed, and the Count and Morris were 
becoming anxious to know how much money the 
Chicago man was to subscribe ; so they went to the 
Savoy Hotel to interview him. The Chicago man 
told them that he intended to invest a hundred 
thousand pounds in the company ; but before finally 
deciding he had thought it advisable to telegraph 
to a friend of his, a banker in France. When he 
received a satisfactory answer from him he would 
be happy to hand his cheque to the Count. The 
Count s face fell considerably, for these two 
Americans were his last hope ; and if the French 
banker chanced to give an unfavourable report, the 
company would be the loser of one million roubles. 

'*Je naime pas a faire des affaires avec cet homme, 
car il y regarde de trop tres ! '* he exclaimed irritably 
to the American. To which the American replied, 
that they were all more or less like that when they 
came from Chicago. 

The next morning Morris called on the Chicago 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART I 99 

man with apprehension, to learn the result of his 
inquiries. He went to the Savoy Hotel and was 
shown into his private sitting-room. The Chicago 
man was in his bedroom at the moment, and hearing 
some one enter the sitting-room, he called out to him 
to wait there until he had finished dressing. On 
the table in the sitting-room was a telegram, which 
the Chicago man had carelessly left there. The 
message ran, '* For God s sake have nothing to do 
with it." 

The next day Morris, the Jewish company pro- 
moter, was missing with all that remained of the 
capital of the great company. He has not yet 
returned. The poor Count, who had acted through- 
out in perfectly good faith — so far as he understood 
it — was thrown over by his employers in St. Peters- 
burg, and, fearing that the climate of Russia would 
be injurious to his health, took a bed-sitting-room in 
Bloomsbury, where he still earns a precarious living 
by translating letters. 



CHAPTER X 

THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART H 

The puzzled reader is at a loss to know how the 
shady methods of Russian and Jewish company 
promoters and the gullibiHty of a gilded American 
can have any sort of connection with the outbreak 
of hostilities in the Far East. His perplexity is 
reasonable I admit, but if the reader will grant me a 
little indulgence I will endeavour to clear up the 
mystery to his satisfaction. But before proceeding, 
there are one or two points in the two cases of Im- 
perial company promoting which I have related to 
which I should like to draw attention. It may 
reasonably be objected that in both cases the names 
of members of the Russian Imperial family were 
used without authority by the agents in England 
for the purpose of misleading the British public, and 
that the Imperial family had nothing to do with 
either of them. To this I reply, that in the case of 
the Lena goldfields transaction, the representative 
who came to London to raise the capital was a 
Prince who is intimately connected with all the 
movements of the Court in Petersburg, and that his 
name alone is sufficient guarantee that he would not 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART II 101 

have used the Dowager Empress's name without 
authority. As to the Ural mountain railway scheme 
I was myself informed by the secretary to M. de 
Witte that he was put forward to act for members 
of the Imperial family, and that he had nothing to 
do with the affair beyond transmitting communica- 
tions betv/een the principals and their agent, the 
Count. As regards the Count himself, though his 
methods savour of certain promoters in our own 
country who may be said to have one foot in the 
gaol, yet it must be remembered that they would be 
considered perfectly permissible in Russia. For a 
Russian he is an honest man ; and he has a son who 
is in waiting on the Dowager Empress. 

Lena and Ural railway, and steam navigation 
companies, and I know not how many more 
schemes, had failed ; and their failure had entailed 
enormous losses on the private fortunes of certain 
members of the Imperial family. Something had to 
be done to recover the lost capital, and the Grand 
Duke Alexander found the man for the occasion in 
the person of M. Bezobrazoff. M. Bezobrazofif was 
convinced that millions of roubles were to be made 
out of Manchuria and Korea, if only the necessary 
concessions could be obtained and money to work 
them. M. Bezobrazoff has a very specious and 
plausible manner, and, undoubtedly, there was a 
great deal of truth in his assertions. The Dowager 
Empress and certain of the Grand Dukes entered 
very heavily into the scheme. The Tsar was 



102 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

approached on the subject, and if he did not sub- 
scribe he at least countenanced it. Those who had 
lost money in the previous ventures were to be 
recouped a hundred-fold out of Manchuria and 
Korea. M. Bezobrazoff was to manage it, and 
there could be no doubt of the success of the under- 
taking, since the Tsar himself had given his assent. 
But there were two men who were kept in the dark 
as to what was going on — M. de Witte, who, for 
reasons best known to the Grand Dukes, was told 
nothing ; and Count Lamsdorff, who, though he was 
not told, found out indirectly what schemes were in 
the air. 

Then it was that the true Russificatlon of Man- 
churia began in good earnest. Then it was that the 
Uryadniks were sent out into the villages to beat up 
colonists for Manchuria from among the poorest 
moujiks. Then it was that Dalny sprang from the 
ground, and Port Arthur began to flourish ; Liao- 
yang became an important centre, and briquettes 
were manufactured from the coal-dust of the Yentai 
mines. The development of the country was pushed 
forward rapidly with money subscribed principally 
by the Imperial family. Dalny was fast becoming 
a town of importance, built of wooden houses in the 
Russian style, and furnished with all the accompani- 
ments of Russian civilisation, including brothels and 
vodka. 

Amongst the army of workmen who laboured 
incessantly with saw and hammer to erect the new 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART II 103 

town, there were many Japanese, who had been sent 
over from Japan to report on the doings of the 
Russians in Korea. So that, whilst Dalny was 
springing up, Japan was preparing for a Hfe or 
death struggle with the Power from the West which 
has absorbed all Northern Asia from the Urals to 
the Pacific Ocean. 

About this time the Tsar was reminded of his 
promise to evacuate Manchuria by the representa- 
tives of other Powers who have interests in the Far 
East. At first the usual evasive replies were sent, 
childish excuses were urged for remaining in the 
country, and an easy-going world accepted the 
promises and excuses in the hope that there might 
possibly be a spark of good faith left in Russian 
diplomacy. But time went on — so did the Russifi- 
cation of Manchuria and the development of Korea. 
Pressure was once again brought to bear on the 
Tsar to fulfil his promise — and the band played 
upon the promenade of Dalny. But the pressure 
was severe, and Nicholas Alexandrovitch named a 
date for the evacuation of Manchuria. The Imperial 
family was thrown into consternation, for the evacua- 
tion of Manchuria meant the abandonment of the 
schemes in which they had sunk millions of roubles. 
They too brought pressure to bear upon the unfor- 
tunate Nicholas. The one trustworthy adviser 
whom he had, M. de Witte, had already been dis- 
graced for venturing to suggest that the best policy 
which the Tsar could pursue was to keep his word. 



104 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

There was nobody left to support him against his 
mother and uncles, and the wretched Nicholas gave 
way. The day named for the evacuation of Man- 
churia came and went, leaving the forces of the 
Tsar still in occupation. 

There was one man, however, who, the Imperial 
family feared, might yet upset their plans, and whom 
they knew to be incorruptible— that man was Count 
Lamsdorff. He had not taken such a prominent 
part as M. de Witte in advocating the evacuation of 
Manchuria, being less outspoken and trained by 
years of diplomacy in Russia to observe a discreet 
attitude towards his Sovereign. But he is a man 
who would lend himself to no political jobbery, and 
who has no leanings towards men of the stamp of 
M. Bezobrazoff. The Imperial family, therefore, 
devoted their energies to the removal of Manchurian 
affairs from the hands of the Foreign Minister, Count 
Lamsdorff. In this they were successful. Whilst 
Count Lamsdorff was working day and night to 
avoid an open rupture with Japan, and employing all 
the diplomatic science of which he is master to that 
end, he was suddenly, at the eleventh hour, ordered 
to hand over Manchurian affairs to Admiral Alex- 
eieff. Now, be it remembered, it was through M. 
Bezobrazoff's influence that Admiral Alexeieff was 
raised to the position of Viceroy in the Far East. 
In order to make Count Lamsdorff 's position per- 
fectly clear I shall quote his own words : ** The 
project of a new agreement with Japan was entrusted 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART II 105 

to General Adjutant Alexeieff, and is entirely out of 
my hands." Thus the last honest man was removed 
from the path of the Imperial family and M. Bezo- 
brazoff. There was no one left in Russia to bar the 
highway to Manchuria ; but at the far end of the road 
there was a nation prepared to dispute the right-of- 
way by force of arms. 

With Alexeieff thrust into the position of Viceroy 
in the Far East like a veritable bull in a china-shop, 
all hope of a peaceful outcome of the negotiations with 
Japan vanished. Nevertheless to the last moment 
nobody in St. Petersburg dreamed that Japan really 
meant to fight. On the Thursday before the rupture 
the Tsar said : ** All will be well ; Japan will calm 
down. There is no danger of war. I began my 
reign in peace; I shall continue and end it in peace.'* 

Alexeieff, Bezobrazoff and company were deceiving 
the Tsar to the last. On Friday morning the Tsar 
received a telegram from Alexeieff to the effect that 
Japan was merely '* bluffing." Again on the Monday 
morning the Tsar was assured by his Viceroy that 
Japan was acknowledging the great strength of Russia, 
and had no idea of going to war. The Grand Dukes, 
convinced that Japan would never fight, were urging 
a policy of *' bluff" on their nephew, whilst they con- 
tinued to pocket the money which they received to 
maintain the army and navy in a state of efficiency. 
The bands still played at Dalny and Port Arthur, 
and Japan, after due warning of her intentions, 
which was not regarded, entered Port Arthur 



106 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

harbour and crippled the Russian fleet. The telegram 
which the Tsar had received from Alexeieff on the 
Monday morning lulled him to a sense of security — 
clearly Japan would not fight In the evening he 
was in the Imperial box at the Opera House, whilst 
a telegram was awaiting him at the Winter Palace, 
informing his Majesty that his Imperial fleet at Port 
Arthur had been torpedoed by the Japanese — and 
the signature to the despatch was ** Alexeieff." 

To sum up the situation in a few words. The 
reason why the Tsar did not evacuate Manchuria in 
accordance with his promise was because, by so 
doing, he would have brought financial ruin to 
certain members of his own family. The reason 
why there was war was because the Tsar did not 
keep his promise. Therefore, the real cause of the 
war was the financial speculations of the Dowager 
Empress and the Grand Dukes of Russia. 

The same cause is responsible in part for the 
prolongation of the war. I have already mentioned 
the contributory causes. That the Dowager Em- 
press and the Grand Dukes contemplated the 
possibility of war when they turned Alexeieff loose 
in Manchuria I do not believe ; but now that it is 
war they desire to go through with it to the bitter 
end. There is nothing else for them to do. Mean- 
while the apologists for the failures, military and 
financial, mutter the eternal Nitchevo ! and com- 
placently avow that Japan cannot win in the long 
run, and that when the Japanese are driven back to 



THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WAR— PART II 107 

their own islands, and are invaded by the Russian 
army — who will presumably swim across — the 
concessionaires in Korea will reap a thousandfold. 
It may be in five years, or it may be in fifty — mean- 
while, Nitchevo / 

Before quittingthe subject of the war in Manchuria, 
and the causes which have given rise to it, and to 
the disasters which it has brought in its train, I 
shall give an example of the Russian Bureaucratic 
view of the matter. The following extract is from 
a St. Petersburg newspaper called the Vtedemosty 
which is owned by a Russian Bureaucrat by the 
name of Prince Uchtomsky. The article appeared 
in that journal two weeks after war had been de- 
clared. 

'* The Russian mission in Asia is a mission of 
culture, but it should be a peaceful mission, not one 
of conquest. Foot by foot we have won by culture, 
and not by military occupation. We did not build 
the Siberian Railway from Vladivostok to Moscow, 
but from Moscow, slowly towards the Far East (the 
future Russian historian should make a note of that). 
... I do not fear naval or military defeat by the 
much over-estimated enemy, Japan. I fear the 
moral failure which will disclose itself when all the 
world sees that we are unable to give the new 
territories civilisation. (And well he may !) . . . 
I do not for a moment believe in the final suc- 
cess of Japan. They are brave and reckless : but 
after marching a distance of from twenty to thirty 



108 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

kilometres they get demoralised. And the next thing 
that the Japanese troops do is to throw away their 
rifles. • . . The disparity in quality between our 
troops and those of the Japanese is so great that 
anything like ordinary warfare is not to be looked 
for, for the simple reason that our troops will simply 
slaughter the yellow race, and not fight them. The 
Japanese troops will take good care not to meet us 
in the open field, although at sea they may have 
some success. Japan, by isolating herself from the 
other yellow races, puts herself into the hands of the 
United States, and that is a neighbour whom we 
must take seriously. We have come into contact 
with them too suddenly ; but we cannot go back. 
We are now too deeply engaged." 

Comment on such puerile rubbish is unnecessary, 
but it fairly represented the opinion of educated 
Russians at the outbreak of the war. As to the 
civilising mission of Russia, to which the writer 
refers in such exalted phrases, she might as well 
have spared herself the trouble and expense of 
building the Siberian Railway, if that were the 
object of it, since there are more than a hundred 
million souls within her own borders who do not 
know what civilisation means. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 

Of the outrage to British fishermen in the North 
Sea by the Russian fleet I find it difficult to write, 
for it has been the theme of all the journalists in the 
world. It has been treated from every standpoint, 
and more able pens than mine have already 
expressed the views which I hold on the sub- 
ject. But, in reviewing the present state of Russia 
it is impossible, in justice to the Government ot 
that country, to omit from my pages all mention 
of the one great victory which the Russian arms 
have obtained since the outbreak of the war. I am 
accused by my critics of bias and prejudice ; but, at 
least, it shall not be said of me that I have sup- 
pressed the truth. 

On the morning of October 23 there were a great 
many people who wanted to know the reason why 
the brave Russian Admiral Rosdestvensky had 
attacked a fleet of British trawlers in the North 
Sea and apparently gained a complete victory 
over it. Amongst others who felt curiosity in this 
matter was the British Prime Minister, Mr. Balfour ; 
and, that he might be quite certain of a truthful 



110 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

explanation, he telegraphed to the Tsar for it ! Then 
he waited several days for the answer — having said 
that the matter admitted of no delay ; and when at 
length it arrived, he announced to the expectant 
world that he was quite satisfied with it, and, 
further, that Nicholas 11. was a most estimable 
monarch; but, at the same time, that the explana- 
tion given from the Russian side was a lie (only he 
used more refined language, as becomes a scholar) 
and an insult to this country. But the Tsar had 
promised an ** inquiry '' and punishment of the 
offenders, also compensation. The Baltic fleet 
blundered on to the South, and **our Mr. Balfour'* 
was satisfied. 

Does Mr. Balfour honestly believe that the assur- 
ance of satisfaction given him by the Tsar will be 
observed ? If he does he must be a very ingenuous 
person, and quite unfitted for the post of Prime 
Minister of Great Britaiuc On the other hand, if 
he does not, he had no right to express satisfaction 
with the result of his protest, and thereby mislead the 
country in a crisis which affects the national honour. 
His long experience as a statesman precludes the 
possibility that he is ignorant of the ways of Russian 
diplomacy ; indeed, in his speech at Southampton 
he hinted very strongly that he was well aware of 
them. And yet he stood up blandly before the 
people of Great Britain, and in the hearing of all 
the world, prattled platitudes about the virtues of 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch. If ever there were a case 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 111 

which justified the Wonderland principle of **sentence 
first and trial afterwards," the Dogger bank outrage 
provided an unimpeachable example. But, where 
action was imperative, there were as usual words, 
words, words ! And words there will be for months 
to come, until, to use an abominable phrase, the 
affair has '* blown over " and the Tsar has once more 
wriggled out of his pledges. 

That this will be the termination of the whole 
case is abundantly clear from the inspired articles in 
the Russian press which have appeared since the 
event, and from the actions of the Russian Govern- 
ment. The Tsar s promises of a full inquiry, repara- 
tion and punishment of the offenders are but a 
few months old; but already there are unmistakable 
signs of his intention to burke the question. In the 
first place, as regards full inquiry. Out of the whole 
squadron which took part in the shameful affair only 
four officers of junior rank were detained. Spain is 
a country celebrated for its goats, it was surely then 
superfluous for Admiral Rosdestvensky to land on 
the coast at Vigo four of the '' scape" breed. How- 
ever, they were landed and sent to St. Petersburg ; 
but instead of being turned adrift in the wilderness, 
one, at least, of them has become a popular hero, 
whose bleatings are reported in the entire press of 
Europe. We are told by our responsible Ministers 
that it is no part of Great Britain's duty to get up 
the Russian case, and that the responsibility of clear- 
ing the honour of the Russian navy rests with Russia. 



11 « THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

But whilst they are talking the Russian fleet, with 
the responsible officers on board, is passing East- 
wards. Does any one suppose that the captain and 
three lieutenants who have been detained are really the 
only officers responsible ? Has a Russian Admiral 
no responsibility for the behaviour of his squadron ? 

Then, as to the punishment of the guilty parties. 
The Russian press, inspired by the Grand Duke 
Alexis, declares that the very idea of punishment 
for the gallant victors of the battle of Dogger Bank 
is out of the question. We are told that we have 
made '*an unfortunate mistake'' in supposing that 
the Tsar ever intended doing such a thing. Scape- 
goat Klado is already on the pinnacle of fame ; and 
doubtless Admiral Rosdestvensky is marked out for 
honours from the hands of his Imperial master, as 
was Colonel Gribski, the murderer of 15,000 Chinese 
at Blagoveschensks. I assert confidently that no 
Russian officers will be punished for the part which 
they took in the outrage on our fishing-boats. If 
the reader wishes to know the reason of my confi- 
dence, I will speak to him in parables. 

A certain school-teacher was instructing her class 
in arithmetic. *' If I were to lend your father five 
pounds,'' she said to Johnny, *'and every year your 
father agreed to pay me back one pound, how much 
would he owe me at the end of six years ? " 

'*Five pounds," said Johnny promptly. 

The teacher expostulated, but Johnny held to his 
opinion. 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 113 

"You don't know how to count," said the teacher. 

** No, I don't know how to count/' Johnny ad- 
mitted; *'but I know father." 

It is the same with me. I may not know how to 
count ; but I know the Tsar. 

By their action in this matter Mr. Balfour and the 
Government have created a most reprehensible pre- 
cedent. In future we may expect the Frenchman 
or German who murders a British subject in the 
streets of London to claim to be tried for the crime 
before an international court in another country. 
My critics will object that the cases are not similar, 
since the Dogger Bank is not in British waters. 
But, though we have long since regarded ** Britannia 
rules the waves '* as a nursery rhyme absurdity, 
nevertheless it is very generally recognised that the 
British fleet has important police duties to perform 
on the high seas, where half of the shipping of the 
world belongs to us. If the British fleet is not to 
put a stop to the destruction of our merchant ship- 
ping and to the murder of our fishermen in the 
highways of home waters, for what purpose do 
we maintain it ? 

The outrage was a matter to be dealt with by the 
fleet, and not by the diplomatists. When the Baltic 
squadron was safely anchored in Portsmouth Roads 
or lying at the bottom of the sea, then would have 
been the time for the diplomatists to talk about it — 
and they could have talked to their hearts' content. 
I venture to say that this is the course which the 

a 



114 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

United States would have taken under the circum- 
stances, and the civilised world would have regarded 
the action with approval, or at least with silent 
assent. It is not surprising, therefore, that Admiral 
Dewey refused to serve on the International 
Court in Paris. I can almost hear him exclaim : 
" O Farragut ! " 

But here, in England, there is hypocritical 
nonsense spoken of magnanimity — which would 
be spelt more correctly fear. We turn up our 
eyes to heaven and call the world to witness 
our forbearance ; and the world, very justifiably, 
laughs in its sleeve and prepares fresh humili- 
ations for us. We quote our lists of battleships 
as evidence that we were not afraid of Russia, 
but we do not mention our army and the Indian 
frontier. We are miserable humbugs — and may 
the Lord have mercy upon us ! 

That Mr. Balfour wanted to do his duty no man 
of his supporters or opponents will deny. The pity 
of it is that he should have such a lamentable con- 
ception of the duty of the Prime Minister of Great 
Britain. There is one other incident in Mr. Balfour's 
negotiations to which attention should be drawn. It 
was stated in the press that Mr. Balfour was sent 
for by our gracious Queen Alexandra during the 
tension of the crisis. Now, looking to the relation- 
ship which exists between our Queen and the 
Dowager Empress of Russia, and to the gravity of 
the crisis, it is to be regretted that she should have 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 115 

summoned Mr. Balfour at that particular juncture. 
Mr. Balfour had the honour of his country alone to 
consider. He was responsible to his King and to 
the people of Great Britain for his actions, and no 
other considerations should have been allowed to 
weigh with him. There is a passage in the teachings 
of Confucius which Mr. Balfour would do well to 
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest: **A great 
Minister is one who serves his prince according to 
what is right, and when he finds he cannot do so 
retires." 

The outcome of it all will be that we shall have an 
International Inquiry in Paris, at which Russia will 
not produce witnesses of any importance ; but she 
will seek by every means to prolong the case 
indefinitely. As to the character of the evidence 
which will be put forward on the Russian side we 
can gather something of its value beforehand from 
the spoutings of the irrepressible Klado ; from the 
fact that the Russian Government has been adver- 
tising for witnesses ; and from the attempted bribery 
of the men of the Hull fishing-boats. At the end of 
the inquiry — if there ever is an end — ^we shall be no 
wiser than we are now, because we already know 
all the facts of the case. The Tsar will pay some 
indemnity for the damage done by his drunken and 
irresponsible officers. The Russian Government 
will stick to the lie about the Japanese torpedo-boats, 
and the Tsar will refuse to punish the guilty parties. 
There will be no humiliation for Russia, and no 



116 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

satisfaction for Great Britain ; and then the affair 
will be said to have '' blown over " ! We shall then 
know that the value of the life of a British subject, 
if taken in cold blood by a foreigner, and more 
especially by an officer of the Tsar, is assessable in 
pounds sterling, and will be paid for after prolonged 
wrangling — What else can a nation of shopkeepers 
expect? The word Nitchevo should certainly be 
taught to the rising generation of Englishmen, and 
added to the language. 

To revert once more to the character of the 
evidence which it is the intention of the Russian 
Government to lay before the international tribunal, I 
quote the following from a Central News telegram : 

** It has come to the knowledge of the owners of 
the Gamecock fleet at Hull that during the past 
three weeks emissaries, alleged to represent the 
Russian Government, have been at Hull tampering 
with witnesses from the fleet. Their object has 
been to get fishermen to say the Gamecock fleet 
assisted the Japanese to conceal their torpedo-boats, 
and to give other misleading evidence. Fishermen 
have been taken to a house in Hull, drink has been 
given them, and when in an incapable condition they 
have been induced to make statements. Money 
has been scattered freely, the bribes in some in- 
stances amounting to five pounds. A clever trap 
was set, and it is asserted that abundant evidence 
will be forthcoming when the International Com- 
mission investigates the matter.'' 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 117 

That is one quotation ; and here is another which 
should raise a smile on the lips of the simplest of 
British subjects. It is from Renter's Agency : 

'' Renter s Agency is informed that the Russian 
Embassy has no knowledge whatsoever of the 
alleged attempts of certain persons to suborn wit- 
nesses at Hull in favour of the theory that there 
were torpedo vessels among the trawlers on the 
Dopfg^er Bank when the Baltic Fleet encountered 
them." 

Now let us admit that neither Count Benckendorff 
nor Count Lamsdorff nor M. de Witte nor General 
Kuropatkin nor the Zemstvos have any knowledge 
whatsoever of the a.ttempted corruption of the Hull 
fishermen. But the question is, who did it? Is it 
likely that it Avas worth the while of any private 
individual to expend considerable sums of money in 
bribing the men to perjure themselves? So far, 
then, we know that it was not the Russian Ambas- 
sador, not the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
nor was it any private individual. Then who did 
it ? The Russian secret police ? But the police in 
Russia belong to the Tsar, and his is the responsi- 
bility for their actions. He has not, as yet, dis- 
avowed the operations of his subordinates — and we 
are w^aiting to know the truth. This responsibility 
of an autocrat for the administration of all the 
departments of State is not properly understood in 
a country which has been for centuries under a 
constitutional government ; but it is the logical 



118 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

conclusion of absolutism. There is no necessity for 
any man to be an autocrat ; but so long as Nicholas 1 1. 
clings to his autocracy, so long must he bear the 
burdens of it. 

Two months after the outrage, which " admitted 
of no delay," the Commission met in Paris for the 
first time — and adjourned for about three weeks ! 
And this is the sort of twaddle to which a respect- 
able London journal treats its readers on the 
subject : 

*' Yesterday the first formal sitting of the Com- 
mission to inquire into the North Sea incident was 
held in Paris. (The reader will note that the das- 
tardly outrage which brought Russia and Britain to 
the verge of war has already become " an incident.'') 
The choice of a fifth Commissioner — the other four 
consisting of an Englishman, a Frenchman, an 
American, and a Russian — fell unanimously upon 
Admiral Spaun, of the Austrian navy. Although 
this selection was anticipated, the unanimity of the 
others is a good augury for the success of the Court of 
Inquiry. The silly people who talked about England 
entering into litigation on a subject affecting her 
honour quite unconsciously insulted the distinguished 
officers who accepted the invitation of their respec- 
tive Governments to serve on the inquest. These 
eminent men will decide the issue submitted to them 
on its merits, and the ultimate verdict may safely be 
left in their hands. To assume that members of 
the Court will be influenced by national or political 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 119 

motives is tantamount to asserting that an inter- 
national inquest is an impossibility. And that 
pessimistic conclusion we decline to accept. (No- 
body asked this dreary paragraphist to accept any 
pessimistic conclusions.) ... Though there is abun- 
dant reason for believing that some effort was made 
to ' get at ' fishermen of the Dogger Bank flotilla, 
we have no justification for assuming that this illicit 
work was encouraged or sanctioned either by the 
Government of the Tsar or by its diplomatic repre- 
sentatives in England. (Note the impersonal ^'zt'') 
It has always been a difficulty in negotiations between 
two countries, that subordinate Russian agents have 
compromised the attitude of their superiors. We are 
as certain as we are of the integrity of our own diplo- 
matic representatives that neither Count Lamsdorff 
nor Count Benckendorff has had anything to do 
with the alleged attempt to corrupt British wit- 
nesses ... Of course, if the International Court 
finds that the Dogger Bank fleet secretly and pur- 
posely harboured Japanese warships, and rescued 
the survivors of a nefarious breach of neutrality, 
then the case against Russia will fall to the ground. 
If, on the contrary, as we believe, there is no 
foundation for this hypothesis, then the Court will 
find that the Russian Government owes not only an 
apology to Great Britain, but a most adequate com- 
pensation for the wrong done to her fishermen. 
(There is no syllable about the punishment of the 
offenders!) And this issue we may safely leave 



120 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

to the distinguished members of the Court of 
Inquiry." 

I give this quotation from a popular journal which 
supports the Government in its action in this matter, 
in order that my readers may have both sides of the 
question before them. It will be observed that in 
the short space of two months the ''outrage" has 
become an *' incident '' ; that people who deplore the 
humiliation of their country are ''silly''; that the 
names of two honest men — Count Lamsdorff and 
Count Benckendorff — are dragged in to exonerate the 
whole gamut of corrupt Russian officialdom from the 
charge of bribery ; that the responsibility for the 
bribery is without hesitation foisted on to the 
shoulders of " subordinate Russian agents " ; that 
the possibility of the fishing-boats concealing, aiding, 
and abetting Japanese warships is admitted, against 
all reason and common sense ; and finally, that the 
British demand for punishment of the responsible 
persons has been dropped. And these deplorable 
opinions are put forward in a journal which poses 
as a champion of British Imperialism ! 

Consider for one moment the fatuity of the sugges- 
tion that " the Dogger Bank fleet secretly and pur- 
posely harboured Japanese warships." Where did 
they come from ? Is it possible that, in these days 
of Marconigrams, Japanese warships could have 
sailed from the Pacific Ocean to the North Sea 
without being reported en route ? Or if they were 
built and manned in England, that they could have 



THE RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY 121 

left our harbours unobserved? The writer of the 
article which I have quoted might with more sense 
have written : *Mf the International Court finds 
that the Dogger Bank fleet secretly and purposely 
harboured red herrings and live bloaters, then the 
case against Russia will fall to the ground." 

On January 9, 1905, the International Committee 
will meet again ; but by that time the British public 
will have lost all interest in the affair. It will hold 
sittings twice daily for weeks and weeks, and the 
report of the proceedings in the British Press will 
become shorter as the days go by, until only a brief 
mention of the fact that the International Commis- 
sion is still sitting will be found in odd corners of 
the newspapers. And that is all. 

But looking at the lamentable fiasco as a guide 
to our future dealings with foreign Powers, it be- 
hoves us to consider what is going to be our attitude 
at the end of the war, when Japan dictates her 
terms of peace to Russia. We may be quite sure 
that Germany and France will endeavour to play 
the part of friend to fallen Russia, whilst they gain 
what advantage they can for themselves out of the 
situation. And what will Great Britain, who is the 
ally of Japan, do then ? Will she stand by and see 
the fruits of victory wrested from the Japanese, as 
she did after the treaty of Shimonoseki ? If we 
cannot stretch out our hand to defend our own 
honour, is it likely that we shall raise a finger to 
help Japan ? If we are afraid of fallen Russia, shall 



122 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

we dare to face the much- vaunted ** mailed fist " of 
Germany ? If only we had had the courage to take 
up a firm attitude in this matter, we might have pre- 
vented the intervention of other Powers after the 
final victory of Japan. But the other Powers know 
us too well to be deterred from their ambitions by 
the fleets of England, which do not fight, or by the 
army which does not exist, or by the statesmen who 
threaten but do not perform, or by the people who 
forget in two months the outrage to their honour. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE AWAKENING 

For centuries the giant lay in a profound slumber ; 
but it was not the sleep of quiet repose. Dreams 
of terror, of oppression, of a nameless fear haunted 
the hours of darkness — and all the hours were dark- 
nesso Sometimes he started spasmodically in his 
sleep, and called out — vague, incoherent cries for 
help ; but no one answered, and he relapsed again 
into the lethargy of despair. Above him there sat 
always a solitary figure whom he worshipped, and 
who, in return, was cruel and tormented him. He 
was only a poor little creature, and the giant was 
huge and cumbrous ; but, for all that, the giant 
worked for him, fed him on his own blood, clothed 
him with his own strength, and shielded him from 
harm. For he knew that the little man who sat 
above him held the keys of life and death, and of 
salvation and damnation after death. He was his 
Little Father, and if he were not a good giant he 
would chastise him, and chastisement was good for 
him. Therefore he made no complaint when the 
Little Father bandaged his eyes, and stopped his 
ears, and scourged him with the lash of injustice, 



124 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

and trampled on him. Only now and again he cried 
out ; but he always fell back into submissive slumber. 

Deep down in his inner consciousness he knew that 
it was all a dream, and that some day he would awake. 
But this was the rule of the dream, that so long as 
he slept and the Little Father kept awake, he could 
never escape from his tyranny ; but that if the 
Little Father slept he might be able to rouse him- 
self and be free. The Little Father knew the rule 
of the dream, and for hundreds and hundreds of 
years he kept awake, and administered soporifics to 
the giant from little phials, labelled *' Superstition" 
and ** Ignorance." Only now and again during all 
the course of the dream did the Little Father nod 
his head in slumber, and then something always 
happened to him which made him start out of his 
sleep, and redouble his persecution of the giant 
who had dared to twitch the hem of his mantle. 

But one day the giant noticed that the Little 
Father was getting very tired. He was just as 
capricious and cruel as ever ; but a new phase had 
come over him, which took the form of expressing 
the best of intentions towards the giant whilst he 
continued to oppress him. The giant rubbed his 
eyes — *' Was it possible,'' he asked himself, '' that the 
Little Father was talking in his sleep?'' He 
managed with difficulty to remove the stopping 
from one of his ears, and listened. He found that 
he could hear voices now which he had never 
heard before — voices from far away which spoke of 



THE AWAKENING 125 

freedom and liberty, and other things of which he did 
not know the names even. The Little Father was 
still saying how much he loved the giant, and what 
a lot of nice things he would give him some day ; 
but the giant no longer heard him. The voices 
absorbed all his attention. As he listened their 
words became more intelligible and the accents 
clearer. The giant began to realise that the voices 
were outside of the dream ; that they belonged to 
the world of reality, and that he was on the point 
of waking up after his long troubled sleep. 

He tried to stretch his great arms, but they were 
still bound. He opened his eyes painfully — there was 
a mist before them. But he was waking, of that he 
was certain. Through the mist he looked at the 
Little Father, who, in spite of his promises, was 
torturing him unmercifully and trying to bleed him 
to death. The heavy lids were drooping over the 
Little Father's eyes, his head was inclined forward 
on his breast. He was already half asleep, and the 
giant waited patiently. They were both in the 
realm which lies between consciousness and sleep, 
the giant awaking, the Little Father sinking into 
slumber — the giant listening to the voices, and 
learning ; the Little Father no longer hearing the 
voices of reason and reality, but only the unsub- 
stantial murmurings of the bewildering dream. 

He was standing alone in the great chamber of 
the Natsarskoe Selo, whose walls are decorated with 
the portraits of those who had been the Little 



126 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Fathers before him. They looked down upon him 
from their oval gilded frames with contemptuous 
pity, because he was lonely and forlorn. Fear was 
in his heart, and he was torn by divided counsels. 
He had promised so much, and done so little — 
there was always some one to drag him back from 
what he would accomplish, some one to remind him 
that he was the Little Father, appointed by Divine 
Power, and set upon a plane by himself with a 
divinity of his own which raised him above the 
giant at his feet. His destiny was inexorable — he 
must fulfil it. He must keep the giant captive for 
his son and his son's sons for all time — for that was 
the tradition of the Little Fathers. But he was a 
weakling, and fearful of the huge creature, and he 
was ashamed, and covered his eyes with his hands 
to shut out the grim faces which stared contemp- 
tuously at him from all sides. They had controlled 
the giant and kept him in check ; it was his to follow 
in their footsteps. But without he could hear the 
groanings of the monster as he writhed beneath the 
tortures which he had inflicted upon him. The 
sounds which he emitted were becoming more 
articulate ; from mere cries of pain they were turn- 
ing to demands for redress. Louder and clearer 
the giant cried in the darkness — until, with a shout 
which echoed down the long corrid(jrs of the palace, 
he ejaculated the word '' Constitution ! " 

In a childish frenzy the Little Father threw him- 
self on his knees by the table. 



THE AWAKENING 127 

" No, no ! " he gasped. *' I cannot depart from 
the path of my fathers. I cannot yield my divinity, 
and bring my infant son down to the level of a man. 
I cannot relinquish my autocracy — it is divine. It 
is I, and I only, who rule in Russia! I will give 
anything — anything but a Constitution ! The w^ord 
is sacrilege and an abomination ! Mirsky ! Mirsky! 
help me ! Tell the Zemstvos that I will call them 
brothers, all my beloved brothers — but I cannot give 
a Constitution ! " 

Now, of course this is only a dream. The picture 
of the great autocrat, Nicholas Alexandrovitch, 
grovelling on his knees before the portraits of his 
revered ancestors, and in fear of the people of 
Russia whom he governs, is, of course, absurd. The 
world knows better than to believe such a lampoon 
of the estimable Nicholas II. But at this point the 
dream merges into reality. The Tsar is in the 
great chamber of the palace surrounded by the por- 
traits, as we have imagined him in his dreams ; 
Prince Sviatopolk Mirsky, his Minister of the 
Interior, is standing before him with a paper in his 
hand, and on the paper are written '' Notes '' of the 
draft Constitution which the Zemstvos discussed and 
adopted at their historic meeting in November 1904. 
The door opened and the Dowager Empress entered. 
She had heard that Prince Mirsky is with the Tsar, 
and she knew for what purpose he had come. She 
demanded to hear the document read which the 
Prince had brought from the Zemstvos. The Tsar, 



128 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

prompted by a desire to assert himself, or because 
he had already heard more than enough of the pre- 
cious document, objected. 

** If you will not hear it, then go to your wife and 
babies. I wish to know what the Zemstvos really 
want ! '* the Dowager Empress exclaimed. 

Prince Mirsky began to read the paragraphs as he 
had written them down ; but presently the Dowager 
Empress interrupted him. 

*' You need read no more ! " she said ; and the 
Prince bowed himself out of the room. 

Such is the history of the communication of the 
resolutions of the Zemstvos to the Tsar and his 
mother, as it was told to me by a gentleman who is 
in an exalted position in the palace of the Tsar. 
This and many other things he communicated to me 
as lately as the beginning of December 1904. 

The draft of the Zemstvos bears the title, ** The 
Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire," and is 
to the following effect : 

** At the head of the Empire is placed the 
Sovereign and the Imperial Douma. Freedom of 
religion, speech, press and meeting. Inviolability 
of person. The laws of succession to the Throne 
to remain the same. The Sovereign takes the oath 
to the Imperial Senate and the Doumxa, The 
Douma may remove the Sovereign on account of 
infirmity. The Douma determines the civil list. 
The person of the Sovereign is inviolable. The 
Ministers are responsible for the actions of the 



THE AWAKENING 129 

Sovereign. To the Sovereign belongs the right of 
declaring war, making peace, and making treaties 
v^rith other countries, of issuing orders (the ukaze) not 
in contradiction to existing laws, of dissolving the 
Legislative Houses, and of ordering new elections. 
The Sovereign is also Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and the Fleet. The Imperial Douma consists 
of two Houses elected every three years : (ist) The 
House of Delegates of the Zemstvos ; (2nd) The 
House of the People's Representatives. The 
Zemskaya Douma consists of delegates elected by 
the Zemstvos and the Town Councils. The House 
of the People's Representatives consists of delegates 
elected by general suffrage ; secret and direct 
ballot. The franchise, as well as the right to sit in 
the House of Representatives, belongs to every male 
citizen over twenty-one ; only the military and the 
police are excluded from the franchise. The mem- 
bers of the Douma receive a salary. Members of 
the Douma entering the service of the Government 
cannot sit in the Douma, Ministers excepted. The 
Douma makes decisions by a simple majority 
(except fundamental laws). Every member has the 
right of introducing a Bill, which must be accepted 
(ist) by the two Doumas, and (2nd) by the sanction 
of the Sovereign. 

*'At the head of the Executive Power is the 
Chancellor, who selects Ministers. The Ministers 
are responsible. Self-government of towns and 
villages by Town Councils and Zemstvos. The 



130 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

members of the Zemstvos and of the Town Councils 
are elected by general franchise. Separation of 
judicial and administrative powers. The country 
is divided into constituencies according to the 
number of population. Elections take place on a 
Sunday appointed by the Sovereign." 

It is not surprising that the '* notes" of Prince 
Sviatopolk Mirsky taken from a document such as 
the above should have created a profound sensation 
in the Natsarskoe Selo. But what is to be done ? 
How is autocracy to be upheld, when the Zemstvos, 
which represent the views of nobility and peasant 
alike, put forward such outrageous demands ? Brute 
force suffered a crushing blow when de Plehve was 
shattered by the bomb of the fearless Sozonoff ; but 
there are plenty of hyenas of the stamp of de Plehve 
left in Russia, and they must be impressed into the 
service of autocracy. There is Prince Obolensky, 
for instance. General Gribsky, Rodionoif, Pobie- 
donostseff, the Grand Dukes Alexis, Alexander, 
Michael and Sergius^ and hundreds more who are 
willing to take the risks of office. But if there are 
hundreds of de Plehves left alive in Russia, there 
are also thousands of Sozonoffs, who have the 
sympathy and support of millions of the Tsar's 
subjects. There are, too, millions of cooler heads, 
who are waiting patiently for the opportunity 
which lies in the near future. They are of every 
rank and in every walk of life. Then what is 
to be done to uphold Divine Autocracy } Here 



THE AWAKENING 131 

is Nicholas Alexandrovitchs answer in his own 
words : 

** The desires for reform expressed by the St. 
Petersburg conference of representatives of the 
Zemstvos have been the object of discussion in the 
press and at different meetings, and, in contraven- 
tion of the law, also in the town councils. Above all 
. . . the youths in different towns affirming the 
necessity of addressing various demands to the 
Government, which, in virtue of the unshakable 
foundations of the Russian State system consecrated 
by the fundamental laws of the Empire, are inad- 
missible, have organised stormy meetings and street 
demonstrations, and offered open resistance to the 
police and the authorities. 

'' Such a movement against the existing State 
system is alien to the Russian people, which is true 
to the old foundations of the State organisation. It 
is endeavouring to ascribe to the ferment a signifi- 
cance of a general aim which does not appertain to 
lu. • • • 

** The Government is obliged to protect the State 
organisation and public peace against any attempt to 
interrupt the normal course of political life. Steps 
must therefore be taken against any breach of order 
and peace, and against any meeting of an anti- 
governmental character, and this will be done by 
every legal means. The guilty persons . . . will 
be called to account before the law. . . . The press 
organs must, by a sober attitude in regard to events, 



132 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

and by a consciousness of the responsibility falling 
upon them, contribute to the necessary tranquillisa- 
tion of society/' 

Of a truth Nicholas Alexandrovitch dreams, 
whilst the giant is stretching himself in the hour 
of awakening. 

A month ago I wrote a letter to a very great 
friend of mine in Rostoff, asking him many questions 
and for a speedy answer. I received in return 
a letter without signature, which bore the post- 
mark '* Rostoff." It contained only thirteen words 
in all — and they were a quotation from Bertrand 
Barer e : 

'' The tree of liberty only grows when watered by 
the blood of tyrants." 

Now, had my friend written me a letter of twenty 
pages he could not have answered my questions in 
a plainer or more convincing manner than was con- 
veyed by those thirteen words. But what a terrible 
shadow they throw across the near future ! There 
are people who exclaim : *' Why, why must these 
things be, when, with a stroke of the pen, the Tsar 
could avert calamity and his own destruction ? " 
Their reasoning is perfectly correct ; but can any 
historian quote an example of an autocrat who has 
relinquished his power without bloodshed and 
murder ; or of one who has given to his people 
freedom of his own will ? The lust of power is 
stronger than any other human passion, and rides 
down all opposition to itself, nor will it yield a 



THE AWAKENING 133 

hand's breadth until it is broken. There is no 
reasoning with autocracy. 

There have been autocrats who were wise and 
great rulers, and who have earned the gratitude of 
their people — men great in war and in the arts of 
peace ; but they have always been strong men. No 
greater curse can fall upon a country than to be 
ruled by a weak autocrat. *' Wise Kings," said 
Diogenes, ^*have generally wise councillors, as 
he must be a wise man himself who is capable 
of distinguishing one.'' If, therefore, we may 
judge a King by the councillors that he keeps, 
what are we to say of Nicholas Alexandrovitch ? 
I will not weary the reader by reciting the list of 
them again ; I will only pause to remind him that 
the wise councillors of Nicholas are, as a rule, those 
who have been the shortest time in office. 

Nicholas Alexandrovitch, as we have seen, is 
wedded to his autocracy, which he regards as a 
divine gift. It is sacred to him, and to relinquish 
it would be an infraction of the divine law. He 
knows by heart the formula of his great grandfather 
for the preservation of autocratic power — ignorance 
and superstition ; and he has never relaxed the laws 
of the Censor and the Church which Nicholas I. 
devised and consolidated to be the main props of 
absolutism. 

But it is more especially to the Church that 
Nicholas II. looks for assistance in maintaining him- 
self on the throne ; and, as a result of his dependence 



134 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

upon it, the Orthodox Church has become the 
greatest scourge in Russia. In '' Russia as It Really 
Is," I have already given some idea of the power of 
the Church and of the hold which it has on every 
sphere of Russian life. I can only compare it to a 
cancer {carcinoma), a petrified crab who sends out 
its feelers all through the system and poisons the 
life-blood of its victim. Such is the Russian Ortho- 
dox Church of which Nicholas Alexandrovitch is 
the God on Earth, with M. Pobiedonostseff, as his 
high-priest. It is a malignant growth which kills its 
thousands yearly, and enervates the whole life of 
the country. The rank fibres are creeping through 
a system of 130 millions of human beings, and 
poisoning them. 

That the Church is the greatest evil in Russia 
is recognised by the prominence which is given to 
freedom of religion in the draft of the reforms 
recommended by the Zemstvos, where it stands 
first on the list and strikes the keynote of the 
whole document Nicholas Alexandrovitch saw 
in that opening demand of the Zemstvos the 
blow which was being struck at autocracy. Houses 
of Representatives, local government institutions, 
a general franchise, all these reforms were as 
nothing to him as compared with the initial de- 
mand — ** freedom of religion." 

Like Dr. Doyen of France, who claims to have 
discovered the bacillus of cancer and the serum 
which will cure it, the Zemstvos have also found 



THE AWAKENING 135 

the cause and the remedy for the malignant tumour 
which is eating into the heart of Russia. Dr. Doyen 
keeps his serum a secret — the Zemstvos have an- 
nounced their cure to Nicholas Alexandrovitch and 
to the whole of Russia. The name of their serum 
is *' Freedom of Religion." But Nicholas is by no 
means likely to attempt the cure of Russia by the 
remedy which is recommended to him. He will 
not even admit that Russia is suffering from the 
dire disease. There are, however, many learned 
men who have made up their minds to use the 
hypodermic injection, and it is only a question of 
the kind of needle that is to be employed. 

Therefore the clause in the Constitution which 
demands freedom of religion is the main offence of 
the Zemstvos. Freedom of religion means for 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch a complete surrender of 
absolutism, since it is by the power of the Church 
that he is enabled to retain the throne of his 
ancestors and the status of a demi-god. Give 
freedom of religion to the people of Russia and in 
five years' time the Greek Church throughout all 
Russia would be powerless — as powerless as is the 
fleet of his Imperial Majesty at this moment. There 
would still, no doubt, be thousands of churches where 
the doctrines of the Greek Church would be taught ; 
there would still be millions of men and women pro- 
fessing the faith of the Church ; but the political 
power of the Church would be at an end. It would 
stand on the same footing as the churches of Rome 



136 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

and Luther, or as the synagogues of the Jews, or 
as the temples of the Buddhists. Its power for 
evil would be broken, and the belief in the divine 
personality of the God on Earth would cease to 
exist. 

It must be remembered that this belief in the 
divinity of the Tsar is a very real factor in the 
religious life of the great masses of Russia. ** The 
divine right of Kings '' by no means expresses the 
Russian peasant's veneration for the Little Father. 
To him it is the person that is divine rather than 
the rights of the person. The Greek Church teaches 
him : '' As great as God is in heaven, so great is our 
Tsar on earth." Not for one moment would the 
Orthodox Greek Church allow that the German 
Emperor, who claimed in a speech to rule by divine 
right, is on an equal footing with the Tsar of Russia. 
I have seen the present Tsar's features enshrined 
in icons — Nicholas Alexandrovitch peering out from 
a tinselled halo, with golden beams emanating from 
his countenance like the petals of a sunflower! But 
if Nicholas were to grant freedom of religion to his 
people, those icons would have to be renamed and 
the features altered to suit the requirements of some 
more enlightened saint, who had not allowed his 
sanctity to be questioned. 

Thrust down from Olympus to the plain of mere 
mortality, the temporal power of the scion of the 
house of Romanoff would soon suffer the same 
eclipse as his spiritual pretensions. Thus robbed of 



THE AWAKENING 137 

his divinity and of his throne, Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch would wander helpless and harmless upon the 
face of the earth where once he was a god. 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch knows it, and M. Pobie- 
donostseff knows it, and that is the reason why the 
twain have set their faces rigidly against '^ freedom 
of religion." 

Whilst the *' Little Father" is nodding on his 
unsteady throne, the giant at his feet is rousing 
himself. Soon they will both be wide awake, and 
standing face to face. Meantime the giant moujik 
stretches his limbs and calls for a stakan of vodka, 
and declares that the Church must go ! The cancer 
must be cut out at all costs. One wants a surgical 
knife for the operation, another is satisfied with an 
axe to do the work. But from St. Petersburg, 
Moscow, Kharkoff, Kieff, and Odessa the cry is the 
same. '' The awakening ! the terrible awakening ! " 
The darkest hour lies yet before her ; but the dawn is 
at hand when Russia will stand forth in the sunlight 
of liberty. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 

In September there appeared in the Nineteenth 
Century and After an article under my name en- 
titled ^'The Coming Revolution in Russia." This 
article attracted a certain amount of notice in the 
Press, and several of my critics questioned the pos- 
sibility of a general rising in Russia on various 
grounds. One suggested that the country was too 
large ; another, that the standing army constituted 
an insurmountable obstacle to the success of any 
revolutionary movement ; a third pointed out that a 
revolution needs generals and soldiers, and not pro- 
fessors and thinking men, to make it effective. I 
do not propose to argue the question in detail with 
my critics ; but since that article was written events 
have been moving very rapidly in Russia, and all 
the indications of the times point towards the con- 
clusions which I formed as to the imminence of a 
revolution. The facts which I am able to record in 
this chapter will give my readers some notion of the 
great power which is behind the Zemstvos in their 
demand for a Constitution, and should satisfy them 
that the revolutionary party in Russia is anything 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 139 

but a negligible quantity in the making of history in 
that unhappy country. 

The meeting of the representatives of the Zemst- 
vos, it will be remembered, took place in St. 
Petersburg on November 19-21. The meeting 
was held without official sanction, and passed reso- 
lutions of an ominous nature, demanding a Consti- 
tution. That such a meeting would have been 
allowed to assemble a few months before is out of 
the question. Then it was a crime for two or three 
to be gathered together in one place without the 
consent of the Politzmaister, and persons appre- 
hended by the police at secret meetings were de- 
ported to Siberia without trial or investigation. 
And yet the Zemstvos, which are the nearest 
approach to a representative body in Russia, being 
composed of members elected from all classes of the 
community with exceedingly limited powers, dared 
to hold a meeting, without the consent of Tsar or 
Politzmaister, in St. Petersburg itself, and almost 
under the shadow of the late de Plehve's chair. 
There they drafted what will one day be considered 
an historic document, which they handed to the 
Minister of the Interior, with the request that he 
would lay it before the Tsar — and they would wait 
for an answer. 

But it was not only the Zemstvos who suddenly 
developed such unheard-of audacity. The town 
councils in Moscow, and in various other towns 
assembled and passed resolutions which would have 



140 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

been regarded as seditious or treasonable six months 
before. Encouraged by the example set by the 
Zemstvos and town councils, a great meeting was 
held in St. Petersburg by the leading citizens of the 
capital, under the direction of M. Korolenko, the 
iioted author. Maxim Gorky and many other men 
of letters were present, also many great advocates 
and men of all the learned professions. M. Korolenko, 
the chairman, led the shouts of '* Vive la Constitu- 
tion ! " and ''A bas lautocracie!" which reverberated 
through the hall. The meeting was kept up until 
the early hours of the morning with the greatest 
enthusiasm. The shouts of '^Down with autocracy!" 
were heard in the streets, and must surely have 
reached the ears of the Tsar's gorodovoys on their 
beats. And yet no one was arrested, nor was the 
meeting dispersed until it broke up of its own accord. 
Now, had this meeting been held in 1903 instead of 
1904, every soul who was present at it, and who had 
not the good fortune to escape, would have been 
digging for gold in Siberia to-day. 

Then what is the reason of this rapid change 
which has come to pass ? Is the war responsible 
for it ? Only to a small extent ; but the great change 
took place when the butcher de Plehve was removed. 
His removal began a new era in Russia. No doubt 
the war has caused great discontent and misery 
throughout the whole of Russia ; more especially 
have the plain moujiks been stirred to resentment 
by the calling-up of the reserves ■ but the new era 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 141 

in Russia is not due to the war. Nor is the war 
responsible for the gradual drawing together of the 
different grades of society into a common bond of 
sympathy, to which I have already referred. The 
talisman which worked the wonder was the bomb of 
Sozonoff. Outside the immediate circle of his family 
and of Bureaucracy there is not a man in Russia 
who is not glad that de Plehve has gone. The glory 
of his removal is spoken of openly in the streets of 
St. Petersburg, and champagne is drunk in the 
restaurants to celebrate the end of Plehvism. It 
was the brutal policy of de Plehve which drove 
aristocrats, merchants of the guilds, and moujiks 
into fellowship ; and it was the act of Sozonoff which 
inaugurated the new era. 

But what has this to do with the power behind the 

Zemstvos? I will explain. When Alexander 11. 

J. 

was assassinated in the streets of St. Petersburg, 
and was succeeded by Alexander III., a reign of 
terror began in Russia which has lasted until the 
present day. Early in the reign of Alexander III. a 
new party came into being, as the outcome of the 
oppression and afflictions to which the whole country 
was subjected by the Tsar. This new party had 
nothing to do with the Nihilists, who were being 
rigorously exterminated by the Government. It 
was a separate body, and whilst the Nihilists de* 
creased in numbers, the new party daily gained in 
strength. The name of the party is immaterial, but 
we will call it the Revolutionary party. At the time 



142 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of the death of Alexander III. the Httle party had 
become a great society, with branches all over 
Russia and beyond the borders of Russia. It had 
brought into line kindred societies and absorbed 
them ; and it has continued to increase and multiply 
until the present day, when it stands as the greatest 
force in Russia. 

The Revolutionary party must not be confounded 
with the Nihilists and Terrorists, such as Vera 
Figner, Aschenbrenner, Ivanoff, and so on. They 
are not advocates of wholesale murder and terrorism 
— on the contrary, they prefer to save life rather 
than to destroy it. They are not monsters and 
reckless homicides; but, for the most part, quiet 
respectable citizens who are striving to obtain for 
themselves and their country the divine right of 
liberty. And they have set about it in a practical 
manner. The first step which they took was to 
collect funds, without which they realised that they 
could effect nothing. They have now many millions 
of roubles in London, a sum as great in New York, 
and more in San Francisco and Chicago. Be it 
remembered that these millions of pounds sterling 
have been subscribed by the Russian people them- 
selves without foreign assistance. Contrast this 
with the needy Irish agitators who have to appeal 
to the sympathies of America to raise funds in order 
to carry on their campaign. It is not the poverty of 
Ireland that forces Mr. Redmond to beg like a 
crossing-sweeper in the United States ; but the 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 143 

weakness of his cause. In Russia the cause is good, 
and the money to back it is forthcoming from the 
people themselves. 

Another way in which the members of the 
Revolutionary party in Russia show their practical 
common sense is by devoting themselves to their 
daily tasks, and refraining from words and actions 
which might compromise themselves or their 
neighbours. In the old days of terrorism, when a 
Nihilist was arrested, there were frequently found at 
his house or on his person incriminating documents, 
which led to the arrest of hundreds of others. But 
this cannot happen to members of the Revolutionary 
party, who are not required to carry loaded bombs 
about in their pockets, nor the visiting cards of all 
their acquaintances. 

There is not a profession in the whole of Russia 
which does not contain members of the Revolutionary 
party. In the palace of the Tsar and in the hovel 
of the moujik good revolutionists are to be found. 
The army, navy, and all departments of State are 
full of them. In Russia alone there are three million 
members, without taking into account the numerous 
Russians abroad, who are mostly members of the 
society. The machinery which controls this huge 
engine of revolution works perfectly smoothly. Each 
State and Government in Russia has its head- 
quarters ; and over them all is the Executive 
Committee, consisting of twelve men, who are to be 
reckoned amongst the cleverest men in Russia. 



144 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

In the hands of the Executive Committee are the 
lives of the Tsar and his Ministers and Governors. 
Now let us see how they make use of their power. 

M. de Plehve had for years carried on a policy of 
oppression and bloodshed as Minister of the Interior. 
A complete report of his doings was drawn up and 
placed before the Executive Committee, who, after 
due consideration of the evidence before them, 
wrote to de Plehve and warned him that his perse- 
cutions must cease. De Plehve disregarded the 
warning, and continued to carry out his policy. A 
second letter was sent to him, which was also dis- 
regarded ; and so matters went on until the Kishineff 
massacre took place. A full report of that outrage 
came into the hands of the Executive Committee, 
which proved that de Plehve had actually instructed 
the head of the police in Kishineff not to interfere or 
stop the massacre of the Jews. Three weeks after 
the Kishineff affair de Plehve received a third 
letter from the Executive Committee warning him 
to make his peace with God, as the fate of Alexander 
II. awaited him. It was then that de Plehve 
increased his bodyguard fourfold, so that his life was 
protected more than that of the Tsar himself. His 
precautions enabled him to prolong his life for a 
year; but on July 28, 1904, he met his fate at the 
hands of Sozonoff in front of the railway-station in 
St. Petersburg. 

Siphyagin and Bobrikoff were removed in like 
manner, after due warning from the Executive 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 145 

Committee, and others whom I need not mention. 
The sentence of the Executive Committee is arrived 
at by ballot. The members of the Committee need 
not all be present at the deliberations, but they must 
all be represented, either in person or by proxy. 
The ballot box is passed round, and if there is one 
white ball found in it the life of the Minister who 
has incurred the displeasure of the Committee is 
spared. De Plehve's life was balloted three times 
before he was condemned. 

There are Ministers and Governors in Russia who 
are wise enough to take to heart the warnings of 
the Executive Committee. The Grand Duke Sergius, 
Governor-General of Moscow, incurred the dis- 
pleasure of the Executive Committee by some act 
which he accomplished on August 19, 1904. He 
was given the choice of three alternatives — to mend 
his ways — to resign — or to make his peace with 
God at the earliest opportunity. He appears to have 
given the matter his earnest consideration, and to 
have made up his mind that he is not prepared to 
meet his God. He has therefore to take his choice 
of the first two courses. 

Prince Obolensky, after his first speech as 
Governor-General of Finland, was advised by the 
Committee that if he intended to follow in the foot- 
steps of General Bobrikoff and to repeat his own 
record in Kherson, he must be prepared to meet 
speedy justice ; as the prolonged warning which was 
given to Bobrikoff would not be allowed him. He 

K 



146 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

received that notice on August ii, 1904; and 
not being made of the same stuff as de Plehve and 
Bobrikoff, he flew at once to St. Petersburg and re- 
quested an audience with the Dowager Empress, 
and afterwards with the Tsar. He subsequently- 
returned to Finland, and, to the time of writing, we 
have heard nothing more of him, nor do I know what 
course he has made up his mind to pursue. 

The Grand Duke Constantine, who is the head of 
the military schools in Russia, determined to coerce 
the Jews and Protestants by excluding them from 
material benefits appertaining to military affairs ; and 
in consequence of his action in the matter M. von 
Saenger, the Minister of Education^ resigned. On 
June 23, 1904, Grand Duke Constantine received a 
communication from the Executive Committee 
stating, that they have nothing against him in re- 
spect of the large sums of public money of which he 
is the administrator, and for which he is unable to 
account ; but that his attempts to persecute Jews 
and Protestants, with whom he has nothing in 
common, must cease. They therefore had the 
honour to inform him that unless he put an end to 
these practices he would come into conflict with the 
members of the Committee. The Duke took the 
hint 

Now as regards the demands of the Zemstvos for 
a Constitution. The Executive Committee know 
perfectly well that Nicholas Alexandrovitch will not 
grant it. But it is a great thing for them to know 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 147 

that the meeting of the Zemstvos was held without 
interference, and that the resolutions passed by the 
meeting were brought to the notice of the Tsar by 
the Minister of the Interior. They can feel that the 
Revolutionary party has effected something at least, 
in the interests of freedom of public meeting and of 
speech, by the removal of de Plehve. They know, 
too, that though Nicholas Alexandrovitch will refuse 
the demands of the Zemstvos for a Constitution, a 
time will come when he will be only too anxious to 
grant his people a Constitution. But when that 
time comes it will be too late ; for the reason that 
Nicholas will then have nothing to give, nor will he 
be consulted. In fact, Nicholas Alexandrovitch will 
have about as much to do with the granting of free 
institutions to Russia as Charles I. had to do with 
the Habeas Corpus Act. 

The Executive Committee keep the Tsar informed 
of all their movements. He was notified of the im- 
pending fate of de Plehve, and of the reasons for his 
removal. He found the letter, four days before de 
Plehve was killed, on the table of his private study. 
The Tsar read it, and handed it over to M. Mura- 
vieff, the Minister of Justice. On the day of de 
Plehve's execution the Tsar found another letter on 
his table, sealed and signed by the Executive Com- 
mittee, calling his Majesty's attention to the fact that 
de Plehve had been executed according to justice. 
The assassination of de Plehve and the warnings of 
the Executive Committee completely unnerved the 



148 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Tsar, and for two days he was prostrated by the shock. 
Perhaps he remembered that, as autocrat of Russia, 
he was responsible for all the actions of his late 
Minister, and that had he restrained him in his 
bloody policy de Plehve might still have been his 
Minister of the Interior. 

On October 27, 1904, the Tsar was advised by 
the Executive Committee of the terrible corruption 
which is being practised by his uncles and cousins, 
the Grand Dukes of Russia ; and how, in conse- 
quence, the army in Manchuria is being starved, or 
fed on inferior rations, whilst the provisions which 
were intended for the soldiers are being sold in 
the interior and on the German and Austrian fron- 
tiers. So Nicholas Alexandrovitch knows all about 
that. 

On October 31, the Executive Committee pointed 
out to the Tsar that the boots which had been 
ordered for the army at a cost of three roubles per 
pair had arrived in Germany and were in use, but 
not by his own soldiers. So Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
knows that. 

On November 7, the same Committee reported to 
the Tsar that certain arsenals and storehouses in 
Moscow, Kieff, Kharkoff, and St. Petersburg were 
absolutely empty, whilst, in consequence, the pockets 
of certain of the Grand Dukes were full. So the 
Tsar knows that. 

On the 1 6th of the same month, the Tsar was 
informed that if a hair of the head of Sozonoff were 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 149 

injured, he would surely pay for it with his life. And 
Sozonoff still lives. 

On December 5, 1904, his Imperial Majesty 
received a lengthy communication, with four seals 
upon it, dealing with the rights of the people and 
liberty, advising him that, for his own sake and for 
the sake of his children, he should break away from 
the counsels of the Dowager Empress and M. 
Pobiedonostseff, and from the influence of the Grand 
Dukes, his uncles and cousins, and become master 
and monarch of his own free will. Further, that he 
should stop the war with Japan. The communica- 
tion ended by reminding him that he had no better 
friends than the people, who were keeping him in- 
formed of everything that is taking place in Russia. 

Since Nicholas Alexandrovitch came to the throne 
in 1894, the Executive Committee of the Revolu- 
tionary party have saved his life on five occasions. 
He would have been assassinated on the very day 
that his second daughter was born, but for the 
Executive Committee. He would have been 
poisoned a week before he started on his visit to 
France, but for the Executive Committee. His life 
was saved by the same agency in January 1901. 
Two attempts on his life were planned between 1901 
and 1903, and both were frustrated by the Executive 
Committee. Yet the two men who sought to kill 
him are to this day in his service at the palace. On 
the occasion of the Tsars last visit to the South 
of Russia members of the Revolutionary party 



150 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

accompanied him, who were prepared to shield him 
at the cost of their own lives, if an attack had been 
made upon him. 

It is evident then that the Revolutionary party in 
Russia are not murderers and Anarchists. They 
only take life when it is absolutely necessary for the 
welfare of the people of Russia. The justice which 
they mete out is infinitely more merciful than the 
arbitrary decisions of the Tsar and his Minister of 
Justice, and it is founded on the most convincing 
evidence. Call it lawlessness if you will ; but in a 
country where arbitrary power frames statutes to 
meet its own requirements, without reference to 
conscience and moral right ; where innocent men 
and women are arrested and sent into exile without 
trial ; where equity is swallowed up by corruption, 
and the liberty of the subject is falsely sworn away 
— in such a country who shall say that lawlessness 
is on the side of the reformers ? 

Thus the great Revolutionary party in Russia is 
working quietly and steadily towards its goal, and 
accumulating treasure against the day when it will 
be needed. With the sound common sense which 
characterises their actions, they believe that the 
battle is half won when the sinews of war are in 
abundance. They discourage, as far as possible, 
premature riots and acts of violence organised by 
irresponsible persons. They only desire that all 
should await in tranquillity the signal of the 
Executive Committee. 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 151 

Now before quitting the subject of the Revolu- 
tionary party and their methods, and the manner in 
which they keep the Tsar informed of their doings, 
here is a Httle incident which I think it is worth 
while to mention, as it may be of interest to some 
of my readers, and more especially to two of my 
critics. When my book, ** Russia as It Really Is," 
was published in the summer, the gentleman who 
reviewed it in the Times expressed deep disapproval 
of the tone of the book. So pained was he by it 
that he dismissed it in less than a dozen lines, con- 
cluding : ** The book ends with an * Open Letter to 
the Tsar,' which, we suppose, is intended as a joke 
— but it is not a good one.*' In a similar strain the 
reviewer in the Academy winds up his remarks with 
the words: ** Mr. Joubert ends with an 'Open 
Letter to the Tsar,' which it is as well that the Tsar 
is not likely to see, for any leanings towards freedom 
would be checked by the pompous inanity of the 
style in which the author preaches." Now, whilst 
regretting the pain and annoyance to these gentle- 
men which my open correspondence with the Tsar 
caused, I cannot help thinking that they may be inte- 
rested to know that a copy of '* Russia as It Really 
Is " was in the Tsar's possession on July i8. The 
book was placed in his private sitting-room by the 
same hand which delivered the letters of the Execu- 
tive Committee ; but, unlike those letters, my book was 
not handed over to M. Mouravieif. I have reason to 
believe that Nicholas Alexandrovitch did not regard 



152 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

my letter to him as a joke ; and I trust that my critic 
in the Academy will not attribute to my '* pompous 
inanity " the refusal of the Tsar to grant any reforms 
to his unfortunate subjects. Having read my book, 
the Tsar handed it over to the Tsaritsa — the 
Dowager Empress already had a copy, but I am 
unable to say when or how she obtained it. Two 
hundred and fifty copies of *' Russia as It Really 
Is " arrived in Odessa in August, and fifty reached 
Warsaw in October. It was translated by a man 
in Odessa into Russian, and it has also been trans- 
lated into Polish ; but I am certain that the words 
Dosvoleno Tsensoroyou do not appear on the title- 
pages of the translations. 

It is a remarkable fact that the person or persons 
who place in the Tsar s private room the letters of 
the Executive Committee and circulars, books, and 
periodicals for his notice, have never yet been dis- 
covered, though spies and detectives watch with 
deadly anxiety all the inmates of the palace and 
each other. The arrival of these mysterious com- 
munications has come to be regarded by Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch as part of the routine of life. I am 
told that he sometimes asks, *' Has my Cabalistic 
news arrived ? " when he looks over his correspond- 
ence. The day is not far distant when the Tsar 
will recognise that his enemies were more mercifu 
to him than his friends. 

A few weeks ago a friend of mine who is a partner 
in a large business in Manchester, and who does a 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 153 

great deal of travelling for his firm, called on me in 
the afternoon and told me that he was leaving that 
evening for the Continent, and that he expected to 
have to go as far as St. Petersburg before he 
returned. Could I give him a letter of introduction 
to a friend in the Russian capital ? As he was 
leaving he glanced at the books in my bookcase, 
and asked if I would lend him two, which he took 
out, promising to return them to me when he came 
back. The books which he had selected were a 
Telegraphic Code and ** Russia as It Really Is." I 
cautioned him about the latter, and told him what 
he should do when he arrived on the Russian 
frontier. A few days ago he called again and 
returned me one book only. It was the Telegraphic 
Code which had been confiscated, and not my book. 
It appears that when he arrived at the Russian 
frontier he remembered my instructions, and handed 
to the official who was examining the personal bag- 
gage of the travellers something na chau The officer, 
wishing to show his zeal in the performance of his 
duties, glancing at the two books, selected the 
Telegraphic Code as a suspicious volume — though 
he could evidently read and speak English — and 
confiscated it. He then took my friend's name and 
address, in order that the code book might be 
returned to him in the event of its not proving to 
be a dangerous book. But apparently the code 
aroused the suspicion of the authorities — for it was 
not returned to him. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS (continued) 

I PROPOSE in this chapter to give the substance of 
a conversation which I had recently with a man who 
is one of the prime movers and a great power in the 
Revolutionary party in Russia. But first let me 
introduce him to my readers, as nearly as I can 
without disclosing his identity. He is a man whom 
I have known for many years, and no chance 
acquaintance of the hour ; and therefore I have the 
utmost confidence in presenting him as a reliable 
authority, in whose word my readers may place 
implicit faith. 

My friend was not born in Russia ; but his parents 
removed to that country when he was about three 
years old. His father was a manufacturer and a 
millionaire; and when he settled in South Russia he 
bought extensive works, which are now the property 
of my friend, since his father is dead. L shall not 
mention the exact nature of the business ; but I have 
his permission to state that he was educated in 
Germany, and that having a natural turn for engin- 
eering he took an active part in his father s busi- 
ness, which he has enormously increased, extending 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 166 

it to England, Belgium, France, and America. From 
this it will be seen that he is a clever business 
man, and I can add that he is as active and cool- 
headed as any man whom I have ever met. But 
besides being a great man of business, he is also a 
great revolutionist. He loves Russia with all his 
soul, and, in consequence, hates Bureaucracy with a 
holy hatred. Nowhere in the world can a greater 
enemy to the present form of government in Russia 
be found. In all his works in Russia he employs 
Russians only, even his engineers are Russians ; and 
it is only when he is unable to find Russians who 
are competent to do the work that he will engage 
foreigners. In America alone he employs more 
than three thousand men — and more than two-thirds 
of them are Russians who have emigrated. In 
Russia he employs eighteen thousand people. A 
year ago I sent a young engineer to him in Russia 
with a letter, asking him to find him employment if 
he could. He wrote in return to say that he had 
found a place for my proUg^, but not in his own 
works. He then explained that he only employed 
Russians, not merely for the love of his country- 
men, but with a certain object in view. I knew 
what his object was, and I said no more about it. 
He lives, works, and saves money by the millions 
of roubles with only one purpose — the liberation of 
Russia. And though he is the gentlest of men, yet 
he is one of the greatest powers with which Bureau- 
cracy will have to reckon. He was in London a 



156 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

short time ago, and I had the opportunity of a con- 
versation with him, the substance of which I shall 
now relate. 

I began by asking him about the labour riots and 
the disturbances by University students which have 
lately been taking place in Russia. He laughed at 
the mere mention of them. 

** They are nothing but a pack of hot-headed 
children," he said, **who act on the impulse of the 
moment. They can do nothing to further our cause." 
He laid a peculiar stress on the words, as though they 
were sacred to him. ** They are useless — absolutely 
useless, for the reason that it is not on those lines 
that we are working. It is not a students' riot nor 
a labour demonstration that will free Russia." 

^* Then what is your plan ? " I asked. 

** Oh ! the same as it has been for the last ten 
years. Money, money, and more money ! We have 
not got enough yet — we must go on collecting. The 
more gold we can collect, the fewer lives will be 
sacrificed. But I am certain there is no way out of 
bloodshed — no way out of it. Money is the first 
consideration. It is the great commander in whom 
we must trust to begin with. There are plenty of 
military commanders of all ranks in our party when 
they are wanted later on ; but money is our first 
object.*' 

I asked him about the officers of whom he had 
spoken. 

'* We have officers enough, not only in Russia but 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 157 

in foreign countries as well. Some are serving in 
voluntary armies both as officers and soldiers — for 
instance, in the United States army there is a good 
number in every State of the Union. They are, 
of course, naturalised citizens of that country ; but 
they are Russians first, last, and all the time ; and they 
will come when they are wanted. In England it is 
the same ; and in France, Germany, Switzerland 
and Holland we have heaps of men. The South 
American Republics ? Why, man, we have fourteen 
thousand in South America and Mexico ! When 
we get to work I do not think that foreign countries 
will have many complaints to make about the influx 
of immigrants. Russian emigrants will return to 
Russia by the thousands, and it will soon become 
known that Russia is a large country with great 
possibilities for settlers, and we shall attract a host 
of foreign immigrants, and, so long as their papers 
are clear, we shall not turn them back." 

'' When will that be ? '' I asked. 

** I don't know," he answered. ** I am only say- 
ing what may take place some day. We are not 
allowed to know when, you understand ? " he winked 
at me slyly, in spite of his disclaimer. *' Now, to 
return to the question of the money," he continued. 
** Nothing can be had in this world without money — 
even death has to be paid for. If we are to succeed, 
as of course we shall, we must have money." 

Knowing as I did that the man who sat talking to 
me had every advantage in life that it is possible 



158 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

to possess — health, a good disposition, enormous 
wealth, many friends and so forth, I could not help 
wondering how it was possible for him to stake 
everything on such a venture. He bears no per- 
sonal animosity to the Tsar, nor, to the best of my 
belief, has there been any incident in his life which 
would account for his bitter enmity to the Govern- 
ment. And yet he is devoting all his wealth and 
energies to the liberation of Russia from the yoke 
of autocracy. How many men with his advantages 
would have chosen such a dangerous hobby? But 
here was my friend at the age of forty-five still a 
bachelor, and with no love but the freedom of Russia. 
By all the laws of social humanity he ought to have 
married and made some good woman happy. I said 
something of the kind to him, and he laughed good- 
naturedly. 

*' Make a woman happy, eh ? Raise a family ? 
Settle down like an old English squire ? And 
pass the remainder of my days in over-eating and 
killing birds and foxes ? A house in London, and 
a stable full of horses — and the Riviera for a 
change when your cursed climate becomes unbear- 
able? A pillar of the Church, a Justice of the 
Peace, possibly a Member of Parliament ? I know 
your English ideas of enjoyment — but they are not 
for me, thank you ! '' 

Then he turned the tables on me. He reminded 
me that had I pursued the career which was marked 
out for me by my parents I too should have been 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 159 

a pillar of the Church and various other estimable 
things ; whereas, he pointed out, I had wasted my 
youth in acquiring dead, absolutely dead knowledge ; 
I had become a tramp in my maturer years ; and 
finally I had taken to writing obnoxious literature. 

** But at least," I said, ''my scribbling is not 
detrimental to your cause — you will admit that ! '' 

** Certainly I will ! " he answered. '' But do you 
write for the love of it, or for the remuneration 
which you receive ? " 

" I hardly know," I said. ** Perhaps for both 
reasons, though I am not clear yet about the re- 
muneration, or the proportion it bears to my shoe- 
maker^s bill. But, nevertheless, I am doing it." 

** Precisely ! " he answered triumphantly. ''You 
write because you must write. The why or where- 
fore does not concern you — you only know that you 
are doing it, and that is enough for you. It is the 
same with me, except that I have an incentive 
which you lack. You must remember that Russia 
is my country. I was brought up there, and I have 
spent the best part of my life among the people. 
When I first took charge of my father s business I 
had no idea what Russia really is ; but before two 
years had passed I found out all about it. I soon 
discovered that if I offered for a contract I was 
obliged to add two-thirds to the cost price, so as to 
be able to satisfy the demands of the officials. I 
found out how the officials rob one another, in order 
that all may live. From the highest in the land to 



160 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

the lowest they all do it — it is only a matter of 
degree. But I do not wish to lay too much stress 
upon that point. So long as there is gold in the 
world, there will always and everywhere be robbery 
and unjust dealing. Russia has no monopoly of the 
curse — you will find it in England and America 
too, though in a lesser degree. But I found out 
things about Russia in the course of my business 
a hundred times worse than bribery and corruption. 
I found out the slavery and misery of the lives of 
the workers in Russia. I found out the needless 
and irritating restrictions placed upon the liberty of 
the subject. I found out how the Government 
cramps the intellect of the people, so that a man 
may have no chance of rising above his class. I 
found out a hundred things which people in a 
free country, such as England, would refuse to 
believe possible. 

** It makes my blood boil when I hear men in civilised 
countries calling our moujiks ignorant brutes. Who 
makes them brutes and ignorant ? Your people, as 
well as our aristocracy, call the Russian Jews Mirty 
Jews.' Who makes them dirty ? Then, when the 
' ignorant ' and ' brutal ' moujiks fall foul of the ' dirty 
Jews,' as they did at Kieff, Kharkoff, and Kishineff, 
the world calls them bloody murderers — but who 
makes them murderers .^^ You know the answer as well 
as I do. You know that it is the Government which 
fills up the moujiks with tschisschinna and vodka, and 
incites them to these crimes. And you know that 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 161 

the Government is responsible for all the misery and 
for most of the crime in Russia ; and you are per- 
fectly right in asserting that Government, Church, 
and the Tsar are all one. 

** Now, with all these facts confronting me, and 
seeing daily tears and blood congealed on the faces of 
my workers, can you wonder that I am trying to do 
what I can to set things right ? My one object is to 
accumulate enough money to be of real assistance to 
Russia. When business is good and money is coming 
in freely, I thank God for the sinews of war — for the 
purchasing power of so many tons of explosives, of 
so many rifles, or whatever it may be. I derive as 
much satisfaction from the accumulation of wealth 
for this object as any man who is piling it up for a 
spendthrift son to squander. I know that my for- 
tune will not be squandered. I hope some day to 
make a good woman happy, as you suggested — that 
woman is Russia. But if I do not live to see the 
day of her happiness — if I die to-morrow, at least I 
shall die with the knowledge that I have done 
something to serve her, and that her ultimate 
happiness is assured in the near future. 

*' Meanwhile it is a satisfaction to me to know 
that in every barrack in Russia our literature is being 
distributed to the soldiers ; that we are educating the 
peasants, so that they are beginning to realise who are 
really their friends ; that the icon is losing its lustre, 
and the pope of the Orthodox Church his influence. 
These are little things, but they are important ; 

L 



162 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

they mark the beginning of the change which is 
coming over the peasant class in Russia." 

When I pointed out to him that there are a great 
many people in this country who regard anything 
like a successful revolution in Russia as an impos- 
sibility for various reasons which I gave him, he 
smiled. 

' * Let them think so, by all means ; they are 
rendering us a service by allaying uneasiness. It 
is not likely that we are going to give out our plans 
to the world at large." 

I then questioned him on the recent meeting of 
the Zemstvos in St. Petersburg and their demand 
for a Constitution, and asked whether he thought 
there was any possibility of the Tsar granting it. 
** You ask for my opinion," he said, ** but it is not a 
matter of opinion, it is a certainty that the Tsar 
will not accept the draft of the Constitution under 
any consideration. He will give a diplomatic and 
evasive answer, which will be dictated to him by 
the Dowager Empress and Prince Mirsky. That 
is to say, the Dowager Empress will dictate one 
answer and Prince Mirsky another, and the Tsar 
will endeavour to strike a happy medium after 
consultation with Pobiedonostseff and some of his 
uncles. Meanwhile the Zemstvos are waiting the 
Tsar's decision before they go further." 

The description which my friend had given of 
the way in which Nicholas Alexandrovitch makes 
up his mind recalled to me a story of a certain 



THE POWER BEHIND THE ZEMSTVOS 163 

American judge. He was sitting at home with his 
wife when the plaintiff in a case which was to be 
tried before him the next day entered. The plaintiff 
poured out the story of his wrongs, and the judge 
listened attentively, pocketed the twenty dollars 
which the plaintiff handed to him, and said, ** You 
are right ! *' 

Hardly had the ^plaintiff left the judge s house 
when the defendant in the same case entered ; and 
he too began to unburden himself to the judge, 
who with the greatest impartiality listened, pocketed 
the twenty dollars which the defendant handed to 
him, and said, ** You are right ! " 

When the defendant had taken his departure, the 
judge's wife looked up at her husband over the top 
of her spectacles with a puzzled expression. ** My 
dear,'' she said, "the first man gave you twenty 
dollars and you said, * You are right ! ' And the second 
man gave you twenty dollars and you said to him 
too, * You are right ! ' But to-morrow^ one of the 
two will have to be wrong.'' 

And the judge looked up at his wife and answered, 
** You, also, are right ! " 

But to return to the conversation with my friend. 

" The Tsar," he said, ** is a reformer attached to 
a string. When he arrives at the brink of reform, 
his mother and Pobiedonostseff pull him back. But 
it no longer matters to us what he does, or what 
ukases he is pleased to issue. We are past that 
stage, and nothing will prevent us going on steadily 



164 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

towards the end, as we have done in the past. It 
is all the same to us. You can take it from me that 
nothing less than a Constitution, such as you have 
in England, will satisfy us. If Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch is willing to grant it, well and good. He 
would remain as our King, but not as Tsar — the 
word must be abolished. If Nicholas Welshes for 
bloodshed, he shall have it. But when it is all 
over there will be no talk of limited monarchy ; it 
will then be a Declaration of Independence, on the 
fines of the United States ; and a Romanoff in 
Russia, if there be one, will be of no more account 
than a Duke of Vermont, U.S.A. To that effect 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch will receive due notice, 
and he can take his choice which it is to be. 

** Personally, I prefer a Constitution on the lines 
of the United States to anything else ; and let the 
Romanoffs take a long-needed rest. But there are 
others who hold different views, and who would be 
contented with a limited monarchy, if it will prevent 
the shedding of blood. But we mean to have one 
of the two." 



CHAPTER XV 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES 

The conversation which I have recorded in the last 
chapter is interesting as showing the views held by 
a prominent member of the Revolutionary party in 
Russia ; but it is not for the expression of opinion 
alone that it is instructive. There is another aspect 
of the case to which I should like to draw the atten- 
tion of the reader. This man is sacrificing every- 
thing for the freedom of his country, not with any 
idea of ambition or revenge but from purely unselfish 
motives. I know him to be one of the gentlest of 
men ; I have known him to suffer unjustly in ordei 
that others might escape punishment ; he is charit- 
able, sympathetic, and a ''good fellow." And yet 
he prays God daily that his wealth may increase, 
for no other purpose than to enable him to purchase 
weapons of destruction to overthrow the Govern- 
ment of his country. Now what are the ethics of 
his case ? Is he to be classed with regicides and 
anarchists, an enemy of society ; or as a patriot and 
philanthropist ? I have no hesitation in answering 
the question — his motives are self-sacrificing, his aim 
the amelioration of humanity, his means the only 



166 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

means possible in the circumstances. Unquestion- 
ably the man is right. 

There are in Russia to my knowledge more than 
fifty such men as my friend — rich, powerful, and 
with only one aim in life — the liberty of Russia. 
The men of whom I speak, who would be considered 
very rich in any country in the world, could make 
their homes in England or America and be pros- 
perous and happy citizens with every advantage that 
money can give. Their wealth would ensure for 
them influence and popularity ; their good breeding 
and education, generally acquired in foreign uni- 
versities, would enable them to select their friends 
from any class of society. And yet these rich men 
have devoted themselves to the cause of freedom 
for Russia. Now, when I hear people talking about 
self-interest and self-love, I think of these men in 
Russia who are devoting everything to the good of 
their poor fellow countrymen. Their philanthropy 
is not advertised to the world, for very obvious 
reasons. They receive no recognition of their 
services in the cause of liberty. They have no 
decorations nor crosses to show for it. But they 
are content to sink themselves and their interests 
and pleasures for the cause to which they have de- 
voted their lives. When we think of these rich 
men in Russia we need no longer despair of selfish 
humanity nor of the liberty of Russia. 

It is impossible to believe that Nicholas Alex- 
androvitch and the Imperial family and the whole 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 167 

Bureaucracy of Russia are blind to the signs of the 
times, nor can they appeal to the world's sympathy 
on the grounds that they are being kept in the dark 
as to what is going on in Russia under their eyes. 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch cannot be ignorant of the 
fact that the Zemstvos are not by themselves in their 
demand for a constitutional form of government, and 
that the demand is no mere caprice of th^se men. 
Does he know that the Zemstvos have sworn never 
to retract their demands ? Is he ignorant of tb^ 
fact that in every barrack in Russia revolutionary 
literature is being distributed to his soldiers, and 
eagerly read by them, or listened to by those who 
cannot read ? There are many officers now con- 
sidering on what terms they will be prepared to join 
the Revolutionary party. In some regiments the 
officers read the orders to their men which are being 
extensively promulgated, admonishing the men to 
avoid revolutionary tendencies and to place implicit 
confidence in the beneficence of the ^' God on 
Earth " ; but they themselves distribute in the 
barracks revolutionary pamphlets and treasonable 
literature which are sent to the men under the guise 
of letters and parcels, without inquiring into the 
nature of the packets. An officer will hand a sus- 
picious looking letter to a soldier with the remark, 
/'I hope, my man, that you have received good 
news from your home.'' And the soldier, with a 
twinkle in his Calmuck eyes, answers, ''Yes, High- 
born, very good news from home ! " Then the 



168 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

officer goes off, blowing the ash from the end of his 
cigarette, and muttering, " Che sard, sard ! " And 
the reason why he expresses his trite philosophy in 
Italian is also significant, since he could as well have 
used his own language: '' Chto budet, budet!'^ 
(** What will be, will be ! '') But he knows that, for 
the present, it is safer to give vent to his prognos- 
tications in a foreign tongue. 

Does Nicholas Alexandrovitch not see and hear 
how all the greatest men of learning in his kingdom 
are assembling themselves together and demanding 
their Pravda (Rights) ; and that there is a power 
behind them when they make their demands ? The 
gathering in St. Petersburg which met under the 
chairmanship of M. Korolenko, to which I have 
already referred, was attended by many distinguished 
men and women, such as Semorsky the historian, 
Pestekhanoff the author, Nevsky the poet, Professor 
Dolbnia, Madame Olga Schapia the novelist, 
Madame Gallina the poetess, M. Passeder the cele- 
brated jurist, and many hundreds of like fame. 
These men and women, by their public meeting, 
defied the Tsar and the knout of the Cossacks. In 
the days of de Plehve the meeting would have been 
suppressed, and the distinguished agitators banished 
to Siberia — but de Plehve is no more — the new era 
has begun. 

In my '' Open Letter to the Tsar " I ventured to 
draw his Majesty's attention to the French Revo- 
lution, and to point out to him that there are many 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 169 

men in his own dominions of the same stamp as the 
leaders of that movement who are prepared to strike 
when the right moment arrives. Surely Nicholas II. 
can hear to-day his Marats putting up their printing 
presses, and the strokes of the hammers as his 
Guillotines prepare their instruments of death. His 
Robespierres are already shouting in the Nevsky- 
Prospect and in the Kremlin of Moscow ; whilst his 
Dantons are formulating their plans. 

Well may Prince Meshtchersky, the proprietor of 
the Grashdanin, exclaim : '* Russia has run mad ! 
People are asking each other, 'Is it Citizeness 
Revolution or Madame Constitution who has ar- 
rived in Russia ?' We live in a mad-house !" Prince 
Meshtchersky's fears are well-founded, and his out- 
burst is not without a cause. But he need not fear 
to leave his question to historians to answer. 
Though Voltaire, Gibbon, Grote and Carlyle are 
dead, the world will yet produce historians to record 
the terrors of the Russian Revolution ; and Prince 
Meshtchersky can rest assured that full justice will 
be done to him. 

Having regard to the signs of the times the 
Prince speaks truly when he says '' we live in a 
mad-house." For surely all who live beneath the 
shadow of the Natsarskoe Selo are insane. It is not 
Russia that has run mad, but Tsardom. Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, the Dowager Empress, the Grand 
Dukes, Pobiedonosteff — all are mad ; and it seems 
that there is no cure for their malady. The gods 



170 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

make mad whom they wish to destroy — and these 
ire mad beyond redemption. Mad with the lust of 
blood which they have shed. Mad with the frenzy 
of oppression and persecution and injustice. Mad 
with a surfeit of self-assurance. Mad—stark mad ! 

Here is a cry of despair, wrung from one who 
lives beneath the shadow of the Imperial mad-house. 
It is taken from a Russian journal, Our Life, which 
dared to ^ive utterance to the agony of a tortured 
nation: ** These terrible Japanese, whom we are 
expected to frighten by sham unanimity, know full 
well that our tranquillity is the tranquillity of the 
prison, and that behind unanimity lurk universal 
discontent and enmity. Let us look the truth in the 
face. There is no order among us, and to obtain 
order we must cease to fear what, in police jargon, 
are termed disorders. The war may render unex- 
pected services to the reactionaries. Precisely for 
that reason is it necessary to hasten to safeguard our- 
selves from the reactionaries, . . . The feeling of 
pity for the war victims, the feeling of reluctant 
shame before those whom the awful magnet of 
the Manchurian tragedy snatches from our ranks, 
dragging them across the endless stretches of savage 
Siberia to a foreign land, to a field of death, forces 
us to cry, ' Quicker ! quicker ! let an end be made 
of this horrible butchery ! ' " Needless to say, Our 
Life was instantly suppressed by the Minister of 
the Interior. 

But whilst Nicholas Alexandrovitch and his 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 171 

household are raving in the delirium of madness, 
the Revolutionary party are working steadily on. 
Here are a few instances of their activity. Not 
very far from St. Petersburg an ordnance officer 
of the Tsar sold to a certain man not unknown 
to the chiefs of the Revolutionary party, who 
happened to be in need of explosives and who 
prefers to buy in the cheapest market, 75,000 
roubles' worth of the Tsar's powder for 15,000 
roubles in cash, which he paid on delivery of the 
powder at a safe place* 

Near Riga, twelve thousand of the Tsar's latest 
pattern service rifles were bought by a man who has 
a future use for them, and an eye to business, for 
40,000 roubles, half in notes and half in gold. 
Putting the cost price of a rifle at thirty roubles, 
this cannot be considered a bad bargain. 

In the city of Moscow the same man bought 
blankets, with the manufacturer's stamp upon 
them, to the value of 200,000 roubles for 40,000 
roubles. These blankets were intended originally 
for the army in Manchuria ; but that was not the 
direction in which they eventually went. I am 
unable to say for what purpose the blankets were 
required. 

In the same city, a week afterwards, another man 
paid 14,000 roubles to a Russian Red Cross official, 
for articles to the value of 85,000 roubles, including 
surgical instruments, medicine chests, medicated 
cotton and sick-room clothing. 



172 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

But if the Revolutionary party is relieving the 
army at home and at the front of some of its surplus 
stock of arms and equipment, it is at least sending 
the soldiers something in exchange. There is not 
an officer or soldier of the frontier stations who 
does not make money, when he can, by assisting to 
pass over hundreds of cases of literature which are 
sent from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and even 
from England, where a good deal of printing is done 
for Russian readers, for the benefit of the army and 
others in the interior. And this goes on in spite of 
the fact that in every one of the countries named 
there are spies of the Russian Government on the 
look-out for undesirable imports to Russia, and also 
for contraband of war which might be shipped for 
Japan. London, Manchester, Hull, Liverpool, and 
several other towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire are 
infested with Russian spies. In London alone in 
the month of October there were to my knowledge 
more than two hundred Russian spies. Some of 
them are not at all bad fellows, and they are not 
particular for whom they work so long as they can 
make a little money, as the following incident proves. 
The story was told to me by the ** gentleman with 
the gold spectacles," who was also the purchaser of 
the Tsar s powder in the transaction to which I have 
already referred. 

In a certain town in Yorkshire, in the month of 
September, a spy of the Russian Government was 
watching a mill. He was engaged as a mill hand, 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 173 

and had been employed for several weeks in this 
fashion, when one day he was addressed by a 
stranger in his own language : 

*' Zdravstvuite^ gospodin ! " (Good morning, sir ! ) 

The stranger was a prosperous-looking gentleman 
in gold spectacles, with diamond rings on his fingers 
and a magnificent diamond scarf-pin — a regular 
walking Hatton Garden, with no signs of being 
affected by the Russo-Japanese war. The spy was 
taken aback at hearing his mother-tongue spoken by 
this magnificent stranger ; but remembering his part, 
he looked the speaker over critically and answered 
in English : 

*' Are you speaking to me ? " 

** Da, gospodin " (Yes, sir). 

Again the spy hesitated, and then answered in 
English, " Please speak English. I don*t under- 
stand." 

" I only speak English to Englishmen," said the 
gentleman in the gold spectacles in Russian ; and 
the spy, seeing that the stranger would speak no 
other language, gave in, and answered in Russian, 
** Very well then, I suppose I must speak your own 
language." 

The ice was broken, and after a few minutes 
conversation these two worthies began to under- 
stand each other. Drinks followed, which the 
stranger paid for ; and then the talk turned on 
money and the difficulty which the spy found 
in earning an honest living in England. As he 



174 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

related his hard experiences the spy looked enviously 
at the flashing gems and general air of prosperity 
of his fellow countryman. 

** I am glad to see, my brother, that you do not 
suffer from hard times,'' he said. 

** Well," the stranger answered, '' I am not travel- 
ling in England for my health. I came here to 
make money, and I have found no difficulty in 
doing it." 

The spy looked at him in wonder and admiration. 
** Surely, my brother," he said at last, *' since you 
are a Russian and I am a Russian, you will put 
me in the way of earning something substantial. 
I assure you I could do with a slice of English 
gold." 

** I think I could find you something remunera- 
tive," said the prosperous gentleman. ** If a thou- 
sand pounds would be of any use to you." 

**A thousand English pounds!" the spy gasped 
in amazement. 

** We will call it ten thousand Russian roubles," 
said the stranger. ** It comes to about the same 
thing, and it is Russian money that you will earn." 

'* What am I to do.^'' 

'' Meet me in Liverpool to-morrow, and I will 
tell you.' 

The spectacled gentleman wrote a name and 
address in Liverpool on a slip of paper, and handed 
it to the spy, and they parted. 

The following day there was a vacancy at the 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 175 

mill for one hand. The spy and his fellow country- 
man sat over a substantial meal in a Liverpool 
restaurant. 

*' I knew you for a spy, my brother," said the 
spectacled gentleman affably, **and that you have 
been in the service of our Government for eighteen 
years." 

The spy nodded assent — he was past the stage 
of surprise. 

** So you understand that when I spoke to you 
yesterday I knew to whom I was talking. I can 
tell you the day you went to the mill, and what you 
were doing before, I have had my eye upon you 
for a long time." 

^* What do you want me for ? " the spy asked 
suspiciously. 

^'Oh, I don't want you, my brother," the other 
answered. ** I only intended to let you know that I 
knew you. It was you who suggested that I might 
be able to help you to make a little money ; and it 
is entirely to suit your own convenience that 
you came to meet me here to-day. But since you 
have come, I have found something for you to do 
to earn that thousand pounds, or, rather, those 
ten thousand Russian roubles — though you can 
take it in any currency you like when you have 
earned it." 

^* What am I to do ? " the spy asked. 

" It is a very simple matter/' said the stranger. 
**A11 you will have to do is to take to Russia 



176 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

some goods which have arrived here only this 
morning.*' 

The spy thought for a few minutes before 
answering. He evidently suspected the nature of 
the business which his new employer suggested. 

** ril take them/' he said at last, **and when 
I say rU do it, it will be done, you may depend 
upon that, my brother. If it is not done it will 
not be because I have failed, but because I am 
dead." 

The prosperous man beamed at the spy through 
the gold rims of his spectacles, and nodded approv- 
ingly. 

** I must go to London to-morrow for further 
instructions," he said, *^and you must meet me 
there. Then I will tell you where the goods are to 
be delivered in Russia." 

Three days later the two men met again at a 
quiet place in the neighbourhood of Knightsbridge. 
The spy, having undertaken the commission, 
carried out his instructions to the letter, as the 
sequel shows. 

The gold-spectacled man opened the conver- 
sation. 

*'Well, my brother," he said, "if you are still 
bent on making ten thousand roubles you will have 
to do as I tell you." 

The spy expressed his determination to go 
through with it, and his employer continued : 

" I have fourteen packages, securely fastened 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 177 

with leather straps and a leather hand-grip attached 
to each, so that they can be easily carried. The 
packages resemble rolls of rugs and other articles of 
travellers' personal luggage. These fourteen parcels 
must be deposited in three different places in 
Russia, near the frontier. To two of these places 
there is railway communication, but you will have 
to drive nine versts to the third, and you will 
receive twenty roubles extra for the expenses of 
the drive. When you tell me that you can do it, 
I will tell you the names of the places where the 
parcels are to be left.*' 

'^ Fourteen packages ! '' said the spy thoughtfully. 
"It will be troublesome. I could not do it in 
one trip." 

*' I can help you in that," the other answered. 
'* I can send two men with you, or even three if 
you like, to within a few versts of the frontier ; 
but they cannot cross the frontier with you. I 
will go myself to Konigsberg, and when the 
packages have all been delivered you can meet 
me there, and I will pay you in full four days 
after." 

** Could not I put the packages into the luggage 
van ? " the spy asked. ''It would save the other 
men, and I should be in the same train with 
them." 

*' Quite impossible ! '' the spectacled man ex- 
claimed. ** You must never take your eyes off 
them." 

M 



178 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Again the spy relapsed into thought. It was 
evidently a dangerous undertaking— but then — a 
thousand pounds ! 

** Very good ! " he said at length. '* Where are 
these presents of clothes to be delivered ? " 

** Three packages are to be deposited in Sosno- 
visce, five near Kovno, and six in Lomzha. When 
will you start ? *' 

'* To-day, if you like." 

*' No, that is impossible. I must see the men 
who are to go with you. Let us say to-morrow 
evening.'' 

'' It is all the same to me/' 

** You will receive fifty pounds on account," said 
the prosperous man, taking a bundle of notes out of 
his pocket. '^ I will give them to you now." 

*' No, no ! " the spy answered. *' I have quite 
enough to look after with your fourteen packages. 
Vou can pay me the whole sum at Konigsberg." 

'' Then it is all settled ?" 
^ The spy rose to take his departure. 

**Of course, my brother," he said slyly, '* I shall 
not ask you what these packages contain ; but I 
understand that I must take the greatest care of 
them.' 

** As to that," said the other, ** you cannot be too 
careful. They contain a legacy which Cecil Rhodes 
left to his relatives in Russia. The packages are 
full of diamonds, the same as I wear on my fingers 
— you see ! " 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 179 

He flashed the rings which he wore in the spy's 
face and laughed, and the spy laughed too. 

'' I never heard before that Rhodes had relations 
in Sosnovisce, Kovno, and Lomzha,'' he said. 

At Konigsberg, a week later, the gentleman with 
the gold spectacles and diamond rings was seated in 
a room in one of the hotels, when a man entered 
and handed a letter to him. He tore open the 
envelope ; but before he could read the contents of 
the letter he found it necessary to refer to a little book 
which he carried in his pocket. With the help of the 
book he deciphered the message, which was to the 
effect that the packages had been safely delivered and 
removed in good order from Sosnovisce, Kovno, 
and Lomzha. Within three days he was joined at 
Konigsberg by the spy, who had successfully accom- 
plished his mission. The gentleman with the gold 
spectacles was perfectly satisfied with himself and 
with the spy, to whom he handed 10,000 roubles, 
saying : 

'* There is your money. Let no man say that 
there is no honour among thieves.'' 

Now since the spy has discovered a new and 
remunerative field of employment in acting as a 
** parcels delivery," he no longer watches the mill 
in Yorkshire, but makes frequent trips to and from 
Russia in the service of the gentleman with the gold 
spectacles. As to the contents of the fourteen 
packages, I had no opportunity of making an 
analysis of them ; but I do not believe that they 



180 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

contained Cecil Rhodes' diamonds. The gentleman 
with the gold spectacles informed me that any one 
of these fourteen packages would suffice to reduce 
St. Petersburg to ruins. 

Such packages find their way into Russia almost 
weekly for some purpose or another. And, as in 
the case which I have related, they are frequently 
taken into that country by the very men whom 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch pays to protect him. It 
is an ugly business ; but a bad master makes bad 
dogs. Those who serve the Tsar as soldiers, police, 
or spies know full well that he will only keep them 
so long as they are fit and strong for the work, and 
when they break down they will be cast off as 
useless. There is no future before them but the 
steps of the churches, where they may beg their 
daily bread. Self-preservation, the first law in 
nature, urges them to snatch the means of subsis- 
tence wherever they can find them. They bear no 
love nor loyalty to the master who half starves and 
thrashes them, and they will turn and rend him for 
the promise of a full belly and a soft bed. The 
example of those in exalted places teaches them 
no higher sense of duty. The greatest plunderers 
wear the highest decorations — then why should 
not the humble gorodovoy levy blackmail from the 
thief .'^ And why should not the spy supplement 
his meagre pay by performing services for others 'i 

Nicholas Alexandrovitch knows of these things, 
but in the delirium of his dream he turns from the 



SIGNS OF THE TIMES 181 

contemplation of realities to the flattering phantasms 
which the Dowager Empress and M. Pobiedonostseff 
conjure up before his eyes. Meanwhile the actors 
are preparing to place the drama on the stage. All 
is ready, and they are awaiting the signal for the 
rise of the curtain. 



^ 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 

It is not my intention to draw a lurid forecast of the 
acts of the drama which is about to be played on 
the stage of Russia. I can only speak of the things 
I know — of scraps of dialogue which some of the 
principal actors have recited to me, of stage pro- 
perties of which I have caught glimpses in the 
wings, and of the stupendous issues which hang 
upon the plot. The stage manager has satisfied 
himself that all the actors are present, that all the 
properties are in their places, that the carpenters 
and engineers are at their posts, and that the great 
army of ** supers '' are marshalled behind the scenes, 
ready to make their entry when the curtain is rung 
up. All is ready, and the manager stands with his 
hand upon the bell. There is one man who can 
even yet avert the dire catastrophe of the raising of 
the curtain upon the bloodiest drama that the world 
has ever seen — that man is Nicholas Alexandrovitch, 
Tsar of Russia. If he would but grant the demands 
of his people for liberty and a Constitution, the cur- 
tain might remain down for ever. But this much of 
the opening scene I know — that on the day when 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 183 

Nicholas IL definitely refuses to grant the Constitu- 
tion which his people have demanded, on that day 
he signs his own death-warrant ; and with him will 
go the whole house of Romanoff. Whilst the heads 
of the Revolutionary party are touring the country, 
as they are now doing, organising the forces of 
revolution into compact bodies, there is yet time for 
the Tsar to speak the word, and save himself and 
his house. But, when once the signal is given, the 
drama must be played out to the end. 

In St. Petersburg and Moscow the pass- words are 
'' Liberty and Constitution.'' The countersign comes 
back from Poland and Finland, '' Liberty and Con- 
stitution." The words are taken up by the great 
voice of European Russia, and the cry reverberates 
to the uttermost limits of the Empire, ** Liberty and 
Constitution." Siberia and Vladikavkas echo back, 
'' Liberty and Constitution.'' It is the united 
demand of a nation in bondage ; and it will accept 
nothing less. The days of compromise and fair 
words and good intentions are past. The people 
with one voice call for action ; and if the Tsar will 
not take action they will take it for themselves. 

The Church of Russia sees her influence vanishing 
before the counter-attractions of the Revolutionary 
stage. The popes are praying, " Lord, have mercy 
upon us ! " They can see the terrible signs which 
Bureaucracy, covering its eyes with the gilded sleeve 
of office, refuses to acknowledge. The popes of the 
Orthodox Church know that many of the moujiks 



184 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

who pass the doors of the sacred building no longer 
uncover their heads and kneel on the steps in prayer, 
as they used to do, but pass by without so much as 
crossing themselves. The aged Pobiedonostseff, 
the High Priest and Procurator of the Holy Synod, 
prays for deliverance ; and though he too must 
assuredly see the signs which his ignorant priests 
have observed, yet he cannot soften his heart 
towards the heretic, nor deny the godhead of the 
Tsar. Poor old man ! the sand in the glass is run- 
ning low, the fanatic years are drawing to a close. 
May he be spared by death from the fate which 
awaits him when the curtain rises ! 

There is a street lamp-post in a certain city of 
Russia which is one of the stage properties of the 
opening act of the drama. It towers above the 
road majestically, and stretches out its four arms to 
the cardinal points of the compass ; and from each 
arm depends a glow^ing incandescent lamp. The 
pillar is wrought with decorative designs, and rears 
its head four fathoms above the street of which it is 
the pride and glory. A certain rich man made a 
present of it to the city, in loving memory of his 
wife, to be for all time a monument to her virtues, 
and a lasting expression of his affection. But the 
curious part of the story is that the rich man never 
had a wife ! 

If the authorities only knew what was in the 
mind of that public benefactor when he presented 
the lamp-post to his native city, if they had the 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 185 

least suspicion of the ultimate purpose for which 
it was erected, it would not be allowed to stand for 
a single day. That lamp-post is intended to figure 
in the pages of history in the same category as the 
stake, the block and the tumbril, and other gruesome 
emblems of despatch. There are men who pass by 
it almost daily, who, it may be, glance approvingly 
at its elegant proportions and tapering arms ; but if 
they knew the significance which it has for them 
they would shun it as they would a pestilence. 
Nevertheless, beneath its shadow the stupid isvosh- 
chiks rest their tired ponies in unconcerned good- 
humour, ignorant of the purpose which the lamp- 
post is destined to serve. 

Though no rehearsals of the drama have been 
possible, the management have carefully considered 
every scene. Their plans are complete for the 
reduction of the Fortress of Schlisselburgf and of 
St. Peter and St. Paul in Petersburg, and of all the 
great Kreposts in Russia. They will be dismantled 
and destroyed ; and the very housebreakers who 
are to undertake the task have been selected. 

In the fleet of Admiral Rosdestvensky half of the 
men of the crews are revolutionaries who will give 
a good account of themselves, though it is probable 
that Nicholas Alexandrovitch will feel no pride in 
their achievements. General Kuropatkin has some 
eighty thousand revolutionaries in his army, who 
will make no Japanese widows and orphans ; they 
have sworn to die rather than take deliberate aim 



186 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

at the enemy, who is no enemy to them. There is 
a great catastrophe pending in Manchuria ; but I am 
not at liberty to speak of it. I shall leave it to 
historians to record. 

I was talking recently to a man who is cast for an 
important part in the coming drama. I asked him 
how long the world would have to wait for the 
opening scene. 

** I have nothing to do with that," he answered. 
** The signal will be given from Russia by Russians 
who can see and watch closely the movements of 
events. We all have our parts assigned to us, 
and beyond them we have nothing to do with 
it. But we are kept hard at work at our own 
tasks.'' 

I asked him for how long he had been a revolu- 
tionist ? 

* I have been a revolutionist,*' he answered ex- 
citedly, *' since the day when I was taken from the 
University of Moscow, some fifteen years ago, and 
sent to Siberia for ten years, Voilnoie poseleniay for 
what offence I do not know, by Alexander III. I 
was released when Nicholas II. had been on the 
throne for five years. I went to Konigsberg and 
took a degree in medicine ; but there is no practising 
for me — I have other things to do." 

In the course of our conversation he gave me his 
views on many subjects, from affairs of highest policy 
to matters of detail. His ideas coincided very nearly 
with other members of the Revolutionary party with 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 187 

whom I have spoken. He held that the war with 
Japan has not materially helped to bring on the 
climax, pointing out that the war was only a matter 
of ten months' history ; whereas the Revolutionary 
party had been working and preparing for years — 
and that it is still going steadily on — war or no war. 
He declared emphatically that to break the power 
of the Church was their first aim, recognising that 
it is the main prop of Tsardom, and that the cult 
cannot be stamped out of Russia until the Orthodox 
Church has been destroyed. He pointed out that 
religious liberty was the first demand of the Zemstvos 
in the draft of a Constitution, and asserted that the 
Zemstvos knew very well what they were about in 
placing it at the head of their reforms. He was 
convinced that the Tsar would not accept the Con- 
stitution, for the reason that if he accepted it there 
would be nothing left for him to rule. In speaking 
of the Tsar he referred to him as Alexander HI. 
I reminded him that it was nolonger Alexander HI. 
who was Tsar of Russia. 

^* Not in name," he answered, ** but for all prac- 
tical purposes it is still Alexander HI. who rules, 
through his wife, Marie Dagmar, and M. Pobie- 
donostseff." 

This remark of the revolutionist gives one a good 
insight into the present rkgime in Russia, and 
accounts for the instability and uncertainty which 
are the characteristics of the reign of Nicholas H. 
The autocracy of the day is a dual personality, a 



188 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

combination of sottish brutality and weakness. 
Alexander III. was coarse and ignorant, with a 
great reserve of brute force. He ruled Russia 
with the clumsy fist of a moujlk, and swore down 
all opposition to his will. His son Nicholas is weak 
and a dreamer, and the only trait which he appears 
to have inherited from his father is obstinacy. But 
the ideals and methods of the father, which have 
found no place in the nature of the son, are still in 
force in Russia, through the influence which the 
Dowager Empress and M. Pobiedonostseff exercise 
over the weak will of Nicholas H. The result is 
that Russia is in a worse plight under Nicholas 
than she was under Alexander. Men and Ministers 
knew what to expect from the father — and he never 
disappointed them. But from the son they know 
not, from day to day, what may be in store for 
them. When we hear of liberal tendencies and 
reforms we know that Nicholas is talking in his 
sleep. When reaction and oppression are publicly 
proclaimed, we hear the voice of Alexander speak- 
ing from the grave. 

I questioned my revolutionary friend on the sub- 
ject of the personal safety of the Tsar. He ex- 
pressed the opinion that there was no cause for 
alarm on that point *' at present." That so far as 
the revolutionists were concerned, he might with 
safety visit any of the large towns of Russia. He 
then mentioned, what I have already stated in these 
pages, that for the last ten years the Revolutionary 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 189 

party has protected the Hfe of the Tsar, and that 
they would continue to do so. 

" With what object ? '* I asked. 

** We are opposed to bloodshed/' he replied. *' But 
when the heads of the Revolutionary party are 
definitely assured that Nicholas II. refuses to grant 
a Constitution to Russia, they will then decide to 
make an end of the Romanoffs.'* 

As he spoke the vision of the lamp- post rose 
before my mind s eye. 

" And what then ? " I asked. 

'' We shall choose our own form of Constitution." 

As I have already stated, the form of Government 
which will probably recommend itself to the Revolu- 
tionary party after the cataclysm is a Republic on 
the lines of the United States Constitution. The 
country is geographically well adapted to this system, 
being already divided into Governments, Counties 
and Districts, which correspond to the States, Coun- 
ties and Districts of the United States. In six 
months the new Russian Republic would be as 
complete in its political economy as is the great 
American Republic, and it would have the advantage 
of copying what is best from every Government in 
the world. 

The question which is frequently raised as to 
the social maturity of the people of Russia, and 
their fitness for self-government, is one which need 
not cause any alarm to ethnologists. I venture 
to assert that, with all their ignorance and fatalism, 



190 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

the Russian moujiks are as well fitted for self- 
government as some of the inhabitants of New 
York State or Pennsylvania, or as the lynch-law 
element of the Southern States. I have not as yet 
heard the suggestion advanced that these gentry 
need a Tsar to civilise them- All that the people of 
Russia ask is that the rest of the world should mind 
their own business, and abstain from interference 
with the internal affairs of Russia. They have 
neither asked nor received any benefits from foreign- 
ers, and they have no intention of meddling in their 
affairs. The development of their own country and 
the amelioration of their own people will keep them 
fully occupied for many years to come. 

I asked him what would become of the aristocracy ; 
and whether he did not fear that the presence in 
Russia of such a numerous and influential class with 
feudal ideas might not be a danger to a republic. 
He shook his head. 

" I do not think so,'* he said. *' The majority of 
the nobility are on our side, if not openly, at least 
at heart. No injustice will be done to landed pro- 
prietors. As to their titles of nobility — they can 
retain them if they choose, as they have done in 
France." 

And then he told me a story to demonstrate the 
fact that the aristocracy of Russia are not necessarily 
the enemies of liberty, and that there are in their 
ranks men who are prepared to sacrifice their lives 
in her cause. In St. Petersburg in the month of 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 191 

November 1904 there was a meeting held jof mem- 
bers of the Revolutionary party, to consider the 
question of the Constitution which the Zemstvos 
were submitting to the Tsar for acceptance. It was 
generally admitted that the Tsar would refuse to 
accede to the demands of the people, and the meet- 
ing had to decide what course the Revolutionary 
party was to pursue when the Tsar rejected the 
proposals of the Zemstvos. Now one of those present 
at the meeting was a member of the Executive 
Committee of the Revolutionary party, and himself 
a Romanoff. And it was this man who rose to move 
that, in the event of the rejection of the Constitution 
by the Tsar, the house of Romanoff should end with 
Nicholas II., and that not a Romanoff should be left 
in Russia. He proposed his motion and sat down ; 
and silence fell upon the meeting. Men looked into 
each other's faces blankly, but none could find words 
to express the doubt which was in his mind. At 
last one of them ventured to speak. *' You are 
yourself a Romanoff," he objected. 

*' Yes,'' said the mover of the resolution. ** I am a 
Romanoff. But if liberty is not granted to Russia 
I demand that an end be made to the Romanoffs. 
You need not fear me, I shall not survive the rest of 
my house. I shall gather myself with the last of the 
Romanoffs, and deem it a privilege to give my life 
for the liberty of Russia." 

Again silence reigned in the assembly. It was 
the silence of intense emotion. Many eyes were 



192 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

wet with tears, and no man would trust himself to 
speak. And so they sat speechless for some minutes. 
Then, at last, one of the members rose and essayed 
to give voice to the sentiments of the meeting ; but 
his utterance was choked by the rising lump in his 
throat. He sat down again until he had recovered 
his self-possession, and, finally mastering himself, 
addressed the assembly. In a few simple words he 
referred to the devotion and self-sacrifice of the 
member of the Executive Committee who had just 
addressed them. Then, carried away by the strength 
of his emotion, he swore that he would not survive 
him, and that whether the last of the Romanoffs 
perished by his own hands or by the hands of others, 
he would bear him company in the cause of liberty. 
Having spoken, he approached the RomanofF and 
fell upon his neck. Neither spoke, nor did any 
other member attempt to prolong the meeting by 
unnecessary words. They dispersed with the know- 
ledge that the meeting had done more to draw those 
present into the bond of brotherhood and loyalty to 
each other and to the cause of liberty than all the 
resolutions in the world could effect. These are the 
men with whom Nicholas Alexandrovitch has to deal 
in the near future. And among them are to be found 
members of his own house. 

There will be one figure on the stage when the 
curtain rises, who will present a strange contrast to 
the implacable vengeance and the ruthless tyranny 
of the opposing forces of revolution and autocracy. 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 19S 

An old man, stricken in years, who has been the 
apostle of peace, charity and liberty in Russia for 
a life-time, Lyof Nicholaivitch, the beloved of the 
people, and the fearless exponent of the rights of 
humanity, will have no part in the arguments of a 
bloody revolution. He will stand alone in rugged 
strength, crying in the wilderness that men should 
love one another, and forbear to commit murder. 
But his voice, which to-day echoes to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, will be drowned in the clash of 
strife and in the cries of the fallen. He has fear- 
lessly given his warning in the past. He has cried 
to autocracy, *' Repent!" He has shown by his 
words and by his example the more excellent way 
of reform. But he has not reckoned with human 
nature ; he has left out of his account the strain of 
murder which is the inheritance of the sons of men. 
He stands in gaunt solitude upon a pinnacle of 
righteousness, and cries, '' Peace ! " but there is 
no peace. 

The revolutionists of Russia love Tolstoy, but 
they cannot follow him. They do not speak to him 
of their movements and intentions, for they know 
that he would counsel them to desist and they cannot 
reconcile themselves to his doctrines. How are 
they to love Nicholas Alexandrovitch, Pobiedo- 
nostseff, Muravieff, Obolensky, ana all the host of 
Bureaucracy, who have oppressed and persecuted 
them ? They are only human after all, and they 
have suffered grievously. They know that Tolstoy 



194 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

would tell them that it is shameful to render evil 
for evil ; that the wrongs which they have suffered 
do not justify them in inflicting like wrongs on their 
persecutors. And therefore they leave the old 
man alone; knowing that in the opposite camp, 
which is blessed with the support of the Orthodox 
Church, they have a high-priest in M. Pobiedo- 
nostseff, who has no difficulty in convincing his 
people that two wrongs will make one right — if 
necessary. 

To sum up the characters which fill the bill of 
the play we have, on the one side, resolute men 
who, without fanaticism, confusion or haste, are 
working strenuously towards a goal. Behind them 
is arrayed a host of humanity, which for centuries 
has been kept in ignorance of the rights and privi- 
leges of mankind. The moral forces which are on 
the side of the revolutionists are the justice of their 
cause and the natural progress of humanity. One 
thing is certain, and that is, that whether they 
succeed to-day or whether they meet with a reverse, 
the end to which they strive must eventually be 
attained. It is impossible that the laws of progress 
and evolution can be for ever stayed by the will of 
one man. 

On the other side is Autocracy, backed by a 
corrupt Bureaucracy and a disaffected army. The 
one aim of Autocracy is to maintain the power, 
which it has wielded for centuries, over the people 
of Russia. For this purpose it relies principally on 



THE LAST OF THE ROMANOFFS 195 

superstition which is fostered by the Church, and 
ignorance which is ensured by educational re- 
strictions and the Censorship. There is no moral 
force which justifies Autocracy in attempting to check 
the progress of mankind ; and the cause for which it 
is fighting is doomed by the natural order of things. 

The prologue of the drama is supplied by the 
demand of the Zemstvos for a Constitution, and by 
the unrest and discontent which are manifesting 
themselves all over Russia in consequence of the 
war and of the misery which it entails on millions 
of the Tsars subjects. Nicholas Alexandrovitch, 
maddened by a superstitions delusion that his 
autocracy contains an element of the divine, clings 
tenaciously to the reactionary policy of his ancestors, 
and desires to transmit to his infant son the sacred 
inheritance of autocracy intact. In this insane 
desire he is encouraged by his mother, the Dowager 
Empress, and M. Fobiedonostseff — in fact, the de- 
lusions which he holds concerning his divine 
responsibilities are due to the influence which these 
two persons exercise over him. When the delirium 
of his madness gives place to sleep he talks inco- 
herently of reforms, and is at once shaken out of 
his slumber by the hands of those who encourage 
his mental disorders. 

Meantime the crown of Imperial Russia rests not 
upon his head, but on a mountain of dynamite ; and 
the Revolutionary party, fuse in hand, stands bv 
ready to detonate it when the signal is given. Rut 



196 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

until that moment arrives his enemies protect his 
life, that their plans may not be forestalled before all 
is ready. Only recently, in December 1904, they 
saved him from the fate of King Alexander of 
Servia. In this atmosphere of frenzy and haunting 
dread Nicholas Alexandrovitch lives from day to 
day, not knowing that each meal may not be his 
last, nor that the cigarette which he holds between 
his lips may not be placed in the glass case beside 
the unfinished cigarette which his grandfather laid 
aside when he left the Palace on March 13, 1881. 
This is the inheritance which he would leave to his 
son and his son's sons for generations ! This is the 
divine autocracy which raises the Romanoffs above 
the sphere of mere mortals ! Is there a man in the 
world who would change places with Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch ? To live in an inferno of terror ; 
without a true friend in the world ; nourished with 
flattery and falsehood ; surrounded by spies and 
prying courtiers ; distrustful of the truth, and of the 
honest men who tell it ; satisfied with pomp and 
circumstance and empty power. 

''All things are in fate, yet all things are not 
decreed by fate," said Plato. Nicholas Alexandro- 
vitch has sealed his own fate by defying the course 
of nature. He is in the quicksands already to his 
shoulders, yet he desires that his son may fare no 
better. He does not know that he is the last of 
the Romanoffs, and that the quicksands will soon 
close for ever over the head of Autocracy. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 

Women from the beginning of things have fared 
badly at the hands of historians. The example set 
by father Adam in shifting the origin of evil on to 
the shoulders of ** the woman " has been extensively 
followed by his descendants in all ages. For the 
crime of disobedience the Jewish and Christian 
Churches have held up poor Eve to the reprobation 
of mankind for more than five thousand years. And 
yet she was nothing like so disobedient as the average 
woman of the twentieth century ; and she had th^ 
grace to be ashamed of herself, which is more than 
can be said for most of her disobedient daughters 

Take again the case of Xantippe. Poor soul ! her 
memory is a reproach and a byword to this day ; but 
all that I can find against her is that she plagued 
the life out of one unfortunate philosopher who 
happened to be her husband, more than two 
thousand years ago. That the domestic troubles 
of Socrates and his wife should be handed down 
through the ages to the discredit of Xantippe 
exclusively, speaks volumes for the prejudice of 
historians. 



198 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Another woman who incurred the opprobrium of 
the civilised world was Delilah. Her conduct in be- 
traying Samson was quite indefensible ; but, so far 
as we know, she only practised her tonsorial art on 
one man, and for this solitary crime she is condemned 
for all time. The point to which I wish to draw atten- 
tion is, that these three women, and I know not how 
many more, have incurred everlasting infamy by in- 
discretions committed to the detriment of one person 
only. Adam, Socrates and Samson were the only 
three people individually who had any valid griev- 
ance against them ; but, because they were women, 
historians have handed down their names to lasting 
disgrace. 

But there is another side to the question. There 
are women to whom historians have been unduly 
lenient. To cite one instance only, and that in 
modern history, take the case of Marie Antoinette. 
We are overwhelmed with the praises of her beauty, 
her charm and her grace ; but that she materially 
assisted to provoke a bloody revolution, and was 
in a great measure responsible for the downfall 
* of her husband s house, is forgotten against her. 
That she paid the penalty of her folly and indiscre- 
tions with her life does not alter the facts, nor does 
it excuse her. But historians delight in handing 
her down to posterity as the embodiment of fascina- 
tion and an object of pity. The world has made a 
heroine of her, and calls its carpets and sticks of 
furniture by her name H^d Marie Antoinette 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 199 

been a plain woman and a daughter of the people, 
she would probably have fared differently in history. 
But with the face of an angel, and with Maria 
Theresa of Austria for her mother, and a Grand 
Duke of Tuscany for her father, and Louis XVI. 
in the equivocal position of her lord and master, she 
has carried the hearts of the historians by storm. 
Therefore the name of Marie Antoinette stands for 
admiration and compassion ; and the revolutionists, 
whom she helped to make famous, are bloodthirsty 
murderers and terrorists. 

But to whom is France the more indebted' — 
to Marie Antoinette, or to Mirabeau, Lafayette, 
Barnave, Talleyrand, Roland, Brissot, Dumouriez, 
Marat, Danton, Robespierre ? Even Marat is called 
a horse-leech, vagabond and an ignorant water-rat, 
though it must not be forgotten that Marat was 
physician to the Royal Family, a doctor of medi- 
cine of Edinburgh, and the author of many noted 
books on therapeutics. Yet a certain dyspeptic Scots 
historian refers to him as a water-rat and horse- 
leech. Personally, I would not be guilty of punishing 
my kitchen cat with the name of Marie Antoinette. 

It appears therefore that woman is destined never 
to be justly appraised by the historian. Her com- 
plex nature is beyond the understanding of the 
colourless impartiality of the historical recorder. 
In consequence the greatest controversies of history 
rage round the persons of celebrated women. Some 
are condemned for a solitary indiscretion ; others 



200 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

are allowed to run riot over the tables of the Ten 
Commandments without a word of rebuke. 

I wonder what history will say of Marie Dagmar, 
the Dowager Empress of Russia. It is possible that 
her name will not be recorded in its pages, except 
as the consort of Alexander III. ; for in an auto- 
cratic government the autocrat alone is responsible 
for all the functions of government. But, with all 
their divine pretensions, autocrats are only human, 
and subject to the failings and influences of human 
nature, as are the rest of mankind. That Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch is free from such failings and in- 
fluences not even his worst enemy would assert. 
His failings have received ample recognition, and 
it is to the influence which guides his weak nature 
that I wish to draw attention. The dominant 
influence in his life is that of his mother, the 
Dowager Empress. In order to give my readers 
an insight into the relations which exist between 
mother and son, and into the nature of the influence 
which she exercises over him, it is necessary for me 
to draw aside the curtain which veils the interior of 
that mysterious prison, the Palace of the Tsar. 

There was in Russia a certain artist who was a 
great favourite with Alexander II. and a persona 
grata in all his palaces. When Alexander III. came 
to the throne the artist was not so frequently at the 
Court, for Alexander III. had no use for artists. 
Nevertheless, the Tsaritsa, Marie Dagmar, fre- 
quently gave him commissions, and he continued 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 201 

to do work for the Imperial family. Under the 
present Tsar the artist came again into great favour, 
and was perpetually in the palace. It was in the 
year 1881 that I first became acquainted with him, 
and we gradually grew to be great friends, though 
he w IS more than twenty years my senior. In 1898 
we travelled together for nine months, and were on 
terms of the greatest intimacy. 

A few years later I was returning home from 
Kazan, and broke my journey at St. Petersburg. 
On my arrival at the hotel I was surprised to learn 
from the proprietor that my friend the artist was 
there, and that he was verv ill. I asked him how it 
was that the artist was at the hotel, and what was 
the cause of his illness. But the proprietor could 
give me very little information beyond the fact that 
he had been in St. Petersburg for the last seven 
weeks, doing some work for the Tsar, and that the 
previous day he had been brought to the hotel in 
an unconscious condition, and that two doctors from 
the palace were attending him. 

The circumstances of my friend's arrival at the 
hotel in a state of unconsciousness struck me as 
peculiar, and I could not help thinking that there 
was some mystery behind them. I was determined 
to find out all about it, and therefore I went to my 
friend's room without further delay. I opened the 
door quietly and entered. By the bedside of the 

artist was sitting Princess N , a lady whom I 

had frequently met at his house. She looked up as 



\ 



902 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

I entered, and laying a finger on her lips motioned 
me to be silent. The artist was propped up with 
pillows, apparently asleep. Wishing to know the 
nature of his illness I went on tip-toe to the small 
table beside the bed, on which there was a medicine 
bottle. In Russia all medicine bottles have a lonor 
strip of paper attached to them, on one side of 
which is the doctor's prescription, and on the other 
the directions for the patient. I read the prescrip- 
tion, and gathered from it that my friend was 
suffering from nervous exhaustion or some ailment 
of the kind. There was nothing more that I could 
do, so 1 went quietly out of the room, and was 

closing the door behind me when Princess N 

held it back, and followed me out into the passage. 

1 asked her what it all meant, and why she was 
by the bedside of the artist, and not his wife. She 
looked troubled when I questioned her about it, and 
said that it was not worth while to send for the 
artist s wife, who was in Paris, as the doctors had 
told her that he would be well again in a few days. 
I was, however, far from satisfied with the explana- 
tion of Princess N , whom I knew to be in 

waiting on the Tsaritsa, and I expressed my inten- 
tion of telegraphing to Paris to his wife, requesting 
her to come to Petersburg immediately. When the 
Princess heard of my intention she became agitated, 
and implored me to do nothing of the kind. She 
again assured me that my friend would be quite re- 
covered in a few days, and that a nurse had been 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 208 

engaged to look after him who would arrive in the 
course of the afternoon. I had my doubts about 
the doctor's assurances of my friends speedy 
recovery, and I told her so ; but I promised that I 
would wait for a few days before communicating 
with his wife, to see how he progressed. And 
so we parted, the Princess to the sick-room, and 
I to the office of the proprietor of the hotel, to 
order my baggage to be fetched from the station. 

St. Petersburg is by no means a dull place in 
which to spend a few days, and the time passed 
pleasantly enough whilst I was waiting to find out 
what course my friend's illness would take. There 
were several officers of the Cossacks quartered there 
whom I had known as junior officers, but who were 
now wearing the uniforms of polkovniks. With 
them I foregathered, and listened to the yarns 
which they spun for my especial benefit, believing 
just as much as I liked of the wonderful stories 
which they recounted. 

On the fifth day after my arrival I called on my 
artist friend again in the hotel, and was pleased to 
find him sitting up in bed, whilst the nurse stood 
beside him with a cup of bouillon to which he was 
feebly helping himself. He was not at all surprised 

to see me, as Princess N had told him of my 

arrival. I talked to him for a few minutes in the 
nurse's presence, and then left him, saying that I 
would come back again in the evening. But, to 
my surprise, when I returned a few hours later, I 



a04 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

found a card fastened to the outside of his door 
forbidding anybody to enter, but to address all in- 
quiries for the patient to the doctor. The card was 
signed by the doctor ; but I took no notice of it, 
and turning the handle of the door I entered. 

The nurse tried to bar my passage, saying that she 
had orders from the doctor not to admit any one into 
the patient's room. But I was not to be excluded. 
and pushing her gently aside I went to my friend s 
bedside. He seemed to be a little better, and so I 
asked him why the doctor had fastened the card to 
his door. He knew nothing about it, as I expected. 
I told him that I should not take orders from 
his medical adviser ; but that if he personally felt 
disinclined to see me then, of course, I should not 
thrust myself upon him. He smiled languidly and 
answered in Polish, so that the nurse should not 
understand : 

" You can come here whenever you wish, and the 
more you are with me the better I shall like it. I 
know what all this means. I will tell you about it 
some day." 

I remained with him for about half an hour, and 
then left. The next time I went to see him the 
doctor arrived whilst I was sitting beside his bed. 
After feeling the patient s pulse he turned to me 
and said : 

" I presume, sir, that you are unable to read 
Russian?'' 

" Not at all," I answered. ** I can read it very well." 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 205 

'* Then I am surprised that you have disregarded 
my orders on the notice outside the door." 

** I paid no attention to the notice," I explained, 
" because I am a personal friend of your patient and 
his family ; and unless his wife comes to him I must 
insist on being allowed to visit him so long as he 
wishes me to do so." 

At this point the artist intervened, requesting 
that I might be allowed to see him. The doctor 
objected on the grounds that he must be kept very 
quiet. And then I told the doctor that I was a 
medical man myself, and that I should therefore be 
careful not to harm his patient by over-taxing his 
strength. Finally, the doctor retired defeated, and 
I heard him mutter as he left the room, '^ Anglisky 
podletz!'' (English carrion!) I said nothing to my 
friend about his medical adviser, but I made up my 
mind, that if I came across him again, I would try 
to impart to him some advice on his manners 
towards his colleagues. 

A week later the artist was out of bed and con- 
valescent, and I asked him to explain to me, as he 
had promised, the meaning of things — the cause of 
his illness, and why it was that the back of his head, 
from his left ear to his collar-bone, was bruised and 
swollen- But the nurse came into the room, and 
once more the subject was dropped. However, the 
next day he told the nurse that she could go out for 
three or four hours, to which she raised no objection ; 
and we had the field to ourselves. 



206 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

** I am sure, my friend, that you are wondering 
why my wife is not with me," he began, as soon as 
we were alone ; " and why I am in this hotel, and 
why the doctor tried to keep you out of the way. 
Well, I can tell you, But before I do, I want you 
to give me a promise/' 

" What am I to promise ? " I asked. 

** That you will not mention my name in connection 
with what I am going to tell you, so long as I am 
alive. You can do what you like when I am dead — 
and my days are numbered, I think.'* 

I affected to laugh at his pessimistic anticipations, 
though I knew very well that his premonition was 
well founded. As a matter of fact he died eighteen 
months after the events which I am describing, 
worn out in body and mind. His very art seemed 
to sap his strength. He had passed his youth in 
extreme poverty, sometimes almost in starvation ; 
and when prosperity came to him he no longer had 
the bodily health to enjoy it. I gave him the 
promise which he asked of me, and, though he is 
now dead, and I am at liberty to mention his name, 
yet I refrain from doing so for the sake of those 
whom he has left behind him. 

*' I came to St. Petersburg by command of the 
Tsar to execute a commission,'' he said. '* Whilst 
I was at my work I became ill — and here I 



am." 



He paused, as though he still hesitated to tell me 
his story, but at length he resumed : 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 207 

** It is a terrible story, but you have promised not 
to mention my name in connection with it." 

I nodded, and he continued : 

** I had been at work for some weeks on the 
picture — a family group of the Tsar and Tsaritsa 
and their children. One day I had just arranged 
the room which was given me for a studio, and had 
posed the group and began to work, when the 
Dowager Empress entered. She was in a very 
gracious mood, and came to look at the picture. 
Then she handed me two fifty-rouble notes, as a 
present for my children, saying that they were the 
first notes which had been struck from my own 
engravings. I thanked her for her kindness and 
turned to my work again. The Dowager Empress 
remained in the studio talking to the Tsaritsa very 
amicably, until, like an ill wind, Pobiedonostseffs 
name was mentioned. I think it was the Tsar who 
first mentioned it. He had it in his mind to relieve 
the old man of his office, and to appoint a younger 
man in his stead. There was a storm at once. The 
Dowager Empress declared that Pobiedonostseff 
was the only true servant of the family ; that he had 
served the Tsar and his father and grandfather faith- 
fully ; that she would not allow him to be turned out 
so long as she lived ; and that if it had not been for 
him the Empire would have been broken into a 
thousand fragments. 

I went on with my work as though nothing were 
happening, glancing from time to time at the group 



208 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

opposite me. The Dowager Empress was at the 
other side of the studio, and I did not see her ; but 
when she ended her tirade, the Tsaritsa looked up 
into the Tsar's face anxiously. The Tsar saw the 
expression in her eyes as clearly as I did, and setting 
his little girl, whom he held on his knee, on the 
ground, he stood up and answered his mother — 
'* Who is the Tsar in Russia — you or I ? Am I to 
rule, or to be ruled ? " 

That is about all I can remember, except that my 
easel, canvas, palettes and paint were flying i ,1 all 
directions. Then a heavy paper-weight struck me 
behind the ear, but I cannot' say by whom it was 
thrown, and I collapsed with the words ringing in 
my ears : 

" Pobiedonostseff ! Muravieff ! Goremykin ! 
Plehve! Plehve ! ! — -" 

Two days later I found myself here. I under- 
stand from Princess N that the Tsar was also 

slightly injured, being struck by the heavy easel in 
its fall ; but I presume that it was not serious. So 
now you can understand why I have a bruise at the 
back of my head, and also why they were so 
anxious that my wife should not be summoned, 
and that nobody should come near me — I might 
have talked in my delirium, or out of it, and that 
was to be avoided. I don't think the doctor 
knows all ; but he has his instructions and his 
suspicions.'' 

When he had told his story he waited for my 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 209 

comments, but I could find very Httle to say. 
Presently he went on : 

** I tell you, my friend, there are evil days in store 
for Russia. What can we expect from the impetu- 
osity of the Dowager Empress ? She is making a 
hell upon earth for all of us, and more especially for 
the Tsaritsa. I remember the day when Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch was married. I was present in the 
palace to make drawings of the ceremony. The 
Tsar had just come from his private apartments, 
and the Dowager Empress swept down the room 
towards him, without even noticing the gentlemen-in- 
waiting who were lining the walls. She was in a 
towering passion, and we could all see that an out- 
burst was coming. She went up to her son like a 
fury, and exclaimed : 

'* ' I wish that you may be brought back from your 
wedding as your grandfather was brought back from 
the Winter Palace ! ' 

** You may imagine the effect which his mother's 
blessing had upon the Tsar ! I shall never forget 
it as long as I live. From that day to this the life 
of the Tsaritsa has been a perpetual torment, and it 
is not only her mother-in-law who makes her life 
unbearable. Our Dowa^ger Empress can be more 
outrageous than the Dowager Empress of China, 
about whom we hear so much ; yet, at times, she is 
an angel. I have seen her in every condition, mood, 
and humour." 

My artist friend was very much distressed by the 

o 



210 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

state of afiairs prevailing in the Tsar s palace, and 
the outlook ahead of Russia, owing to the reac- 
tionary influence of the Dowager Empress. He 
was anxious that the world should know the true 
meaning of the retrograde policy which the Tsar 
was pursuing, and to whose influence it was due, 
realising that the Dowager Empress is susceptible 
to foreign public opinion, and that an exposure of 
the facts might induce her to modify her attitude 
towards the people of Russia and the luckless 
Hessian Princess, her daughter-in-law. I pointed 
out to him that it was very doubtful whether the 
exposure would have the desired effect, and the 
difficulty of making the facts known, as unadulte- 
rated truth, drawn from the bottom of the well, is a 
draught which very few men are prepared to give to 
the world to quaff*, and editors are no exception to 
the rule. However, I have resolved to try the 
experiment, and to risk the contumely which is 
attached to it. 

When Nicholas Alexandrovitch came to the 
throne he had a mind for reforms, and to ease the 
yoke of his people. His marriage to Princess Alix 
of Hesse provided him with a sympathetic helpmate, 
who would have assisted him to carry out his good 
intentions, had there been no more powerful influence 
to counteract hers. But, unfortunately, there existed 
a far more powerful influence— that of the Dowager 
Empress, his mother, who smothered the schemes 
of the Tsar and Tsaritsa in the cradle. On the 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 211 

birth of their second daughter the Tsar, with the 
help of his wife, formulated a manifesto for the 
benefit of his people ; but the Dowager Empress 
heard of it, and a scene ensued, in which she 
told the Tsar that rather than the laws of his 
lamented father should be altered or abridged, she 
would prefer to see him destroyed with his wife and 
children. Nicholas Alexandrovitch gave in, and the 
manifesto was not issued. And so he will continue 
to give in to the end, when there will be nothing 
left to give. 

As I have mentioned before, many of the Tsar's 
Ministers owe their appointments to the Dowager 
Empress. Pobiedonostseff, Muravieff, and the late 
de Plehve are men after her own heart. The 
assassination of de Plehve was a great blow to her. 
She remarked to a gentleman of the household 
that by Plehve s death she had been left like a ship 
without a rudder. The appointment of Prince 
Sviatopolk Mirsky to the office of Minister of the 
Interior, in the place of her favourite, is by no 
means agreeable to the Dowager Empress. Prince 
Mirsky is of Cossack blood, and he is not likely to 
lend himself to her schemes, nor to the vacillating 
policy of his royal master. It is therefore impro- 
bable that his tenure of office will last long, 

The activity of the Dowager Empress extends 
to every sphere. Not content with making the 
domestic life of her son and his wife unhappy, and 
influencing him in his policy, she appoints his 



212 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Ministers and Church dignitaries for him, and keeps 
a jealous eye on his ukazes and manifestoes. All 
sorts and conditions of men in Russia are at the 
mercy of her vanity and caprice. It was de Plehve 
who planned the massacre of Kishineff. But where 
was the Dowager Empress at the time ? She was 
nowhere to be found by those who desired to 
petition her on behalf of the Jews. But two days 
afterwards she was back at the palace. And when, 
a few days later, she was informed of the storm of 
indignation which the outrage raised in England 
and America, she exclaimed : 

"What have those foreign Jews to do with it? 
If they are not content they shall have enough ! '' 

Foreigners in Russian vulgar parlance are all 
classed as Jews. The Dowager Empress, on this 
occasion, proved her right to be reckoned among the 
prophets ; for the massacre of the Jews at Gomel 
took place on the heels of the Kishineff affair. 

But it is not only in domestic matters and politics 
that the Dowager Empress manifests her activity. 
As a promoter of commerce she is second to none in 
Russia. If she would leave politics alone, and con- 
fine her energies to finance, she would probably be 
an exceedingly shrewd woman of business. But to 
manage her domestic affairs, to control the helm Oi 
State and Church, and at the same time to attend 
to oil fields, gold mines, railway companies, land 
and exploration syndicates, &c., is more than one 
woman's head can compass, and, as the result, her 



THE DOWAGER EMPRESS 213 

financial operations cannot be considered anything 
but failures. 

Here is the story of a venture of which the 
Dowager Empress and the Grand Duke Peter 
Nicolaivitch were the promoters. The Grand Duke 
owned a tract of land which was supposed to con- 
tain vast mineral resources. The usual prospectors 
and engineers were brought to report on the pro- 
spects of working it profitably, and they issued the 
usual glowing report. Two rich men were then 
discovered to finance the company. They sub- 
scribed five million roubles each, the Grand Duke 
a million, and his partner a like sum. But after a 
brief life the company went into liquidation, when it 
was discovered that not one kopek remained of the 
capital of the company, and that there were no 
minerals in the land, nor had there ever been. 
There was no redress for the unfortunate million- 
aires who had subscribed all the working capital of 
the company. There is no court to which they 
could appeal, for the persons against whom they 
have a grievance are above the law. Of course the 
story was hushed up in Russia, and not a word 
about it appeared in the Press; but it is very 
generally known for all that. 

In order to voice her opinions, and to keep the 
people of Russia posted in such news as is good for 
them to know, and to point out to investors the 
highway to wealth, the Dowager Empress has a 
newspaper under her guidance called the Novoye 



S14 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

Vremya. It is edited by that notorious reprobate 
Alexai Sergevitch Suvorin, as I have elsewhere 
stated. The Novoye Vremya gives no trouble to 
the censor, because M. Suvorin is above the censor, 
and only publishes what he is told to publish. 
Those who wish to stand well with the powers that 
be in Russia should take in the Novoye Vremya 
and study it diligently. It is the true voice of 
''public opinion'' in Russia, and, as we already 
know, ''public opinion'' is the opinion of Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, as dictated to him by the Dowager 
Empress. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 

In foregoing chapters I have pointed out the powers 
which are on the side of autocracy within Russia, in 
the great struggle which confronts it with the forces 
of revolution. Briefly summed up, they are the 
Church, traditional ignorance, and a doubtful army. 
The revolutionists have no reason to fear any one of 
the three. For they can pit liberty against the 
Church, enlightenment against ignorance, and a very 
respectable body of fighting men, with the justice of 
their cause at heart, against the disaffected army of 
the Tsar. But it is not within Russia that the revo- 
lutionists are at a disadvantage. What causes them 
the most trouble is the support which autocracy 
receives from without. That support comes princi- 
pally from Germany, France, England, and America, 
and from various other countries in a lesser degree. 

Germany, being the nearest neighbour to Russia, 
I shall take first, and endeavour to show how she 
contributes to the maintenance of autocracy in 
.Russia. The greatest friend whom the Tsar has in 
■Germany is his mortal counterpart, William II. I 
do not pretend to be able to fathom the reasons 



216 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

which actuate WilHam, by fair means and foul, to 
give his moral and material support to Nicholas ; 
unless it is that a strain of divinity runs in the blood 
of both, and the '' divine right " of WilHam plays up 
to the '' divine personality " of Nicholas. However 
that may be, there is no doubt that the Government 
of Germany, who prides herself on being the leader 
of the world in thought and enlightenment, and who 
is perpetually boasting '' unser ehre'' (our honour), 
aids and abets, in an underhand manner, the cause 
of autocracy in Russia. 

For years the German Government assisted 
** Plehveism," by handing over to the Cossacks 
innocent Russian subjects who dared to cross the 
frontier to seek an asylum from the persecutions of 
their own corrupt Government. There was no 
remorse or shame about it — they were simply 
handed back to the frontier guards with big words 
about ^^ imser ehrCy' and '^ Deutschland uber allesT 
Not only did Germany allow Russian spies to come 
and identify hapless Russian subjects ; but she even 
prostituted her courts of justice to the demands of 
Russian autocracy, by holding bogus trials before 
delivering the victims over to the Tsar's Cossacks. 
For a long time William assisted Nicholas by these 
means to recover some of his lost sheep, who were 
subsequently sent to graze in Siberia or to be 
butchered in the Kreposts of Russia. Nothing was 
said about it in Germany — the newspapers hardly 
noticed it, and all might have gone on well if it had 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 217 

not been for the Konigsberg trial. Then it was that 
the people of Germany discovered what was going 
on, and the Press began to cry out against the 
inhumanity, brutality, and injustice of the German 
Empire acting ^.s gorodovoy for the Tsar of Russia. 
William told the Press to be discreet ; but the 
righteous indignation of a few editors refused to 
be muzzled, and accounts of the Konigsberg trial 
appeared in their papers. 

I do not propose to deal at length with the trial, 
which is still fresh in the minds of men ; but I 
shall mention a few incidents, and quote the testi- 
mony of Professor Reussner, who was formerly a 
professor at Tomsk University. He said that 
apostasy from the National Church is punished 
with banishment to Siberia. . . . The right of 
meeting does not exist. The sentences of the Courts 
maybe overridden by secret rescripts of the Ministers, 
or by a ukaze of the Tsar. . . . Judges remain 
judges only as long as the Government is satisfied 
with them. ... No matter whether they are sick 
or crippled, students leaving Russia for foreign 
schools without special permission have their pro- 
perty confiscated. 

It was these luckless students and others who 
were flying from the tyranny and oppression which 
the evidence of Professor Reussner disclosed, whom 
the German Government were handing over to 
de Plehve s Cossacks on the frontier. 

The state of affairs disclosed by the trial amounted 



218 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

to this, that Russian spies and police were going 
about in the Russian quarters of German towns 
exacting blackmail from their unfortunate fellow 
countrymen. In the event of a refusal of payment, 
the spy would go to the nearest German police- 
station, and make out a case against the recalcitrant 
person. For this purpose the Russian spy has 
always a selection of seditious or nihilistic literature, 
which is supposed to have been discovered on the 
person or at the house of his victim. The German 
police then arrested the unfortunate Russian subject, 
and clapped him into prison, where he was often kept 
for a considerable time before being handed over to 
the tender mercies of the Russian authorities. 

The evidence of one of the witnesses, a man 
named Buckholz, caused a sensation in court, when 
he exposed the methods of Prince Obolensky, the 
present Governor of Finland. Buckholz swore to 
the fact that Obolensky, when he was Governor oi 
Kherson, ordered all the peasants in a village, 
without exception, to be flogged ; and when his 
executioners had finished with the men, he ordered 
them to begin on the women. As a result many 
women were violated by the Cossacks. The attempt 
on the life of Obolensky was due to this outrage. 
And yet William handed over to the Cossacks men 
who, having dared to defend their wives and 
daughters from such outrages, had sought an asylum 
from the vengeance of the Russian authorities in 
Germany. 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 219 

That is one way in which William II. has been 
assisting Nicholas Alexandrovitch to uphold his 
autocracy. Here is another. Since the outbreak 
of the war with Japan, Germany has assisted the 
Tsar by every means in her power, short of armed 
intervention, to carry on the war. Her violation of 
the laws of neutrality has been high-handed and 
unscrupulous. She unblushingly supplies Russia with 
contraband of war, and even with ships to coal her 
fleet on its blundering voyage to the East. With 
brazen effrontery she sent these colliers to Cardiff 
to be laden with British coal, under the pretence 
that it was for home consumption in Germany. It 
was not until the Japanese Legation pointed out 
what was going on that our Government ordered 
the practice to cease. The matter was investi- 
gated, and it was proved that these German 
colliers, after lading coal at Cardiff, took it to the 
Russian fleet to assist it on its voyage. When this 
fact was established the supply of Cardiff coal ceased, 
but it is to be feared that many thousands of tons 
had already been deposited in the holds of German 
ships for the use of the Russian Baltic fleet. 

But in addition to the material support which 
Germany has extended to Russia in flagrant breach 
of neutrality, William has also extended to Nicholas 
moral succour. When the Russian battleship 
Petrapavlosk struck a Japanese mine and sank, 
William rushed round to the nearest telegraph 
office, and sent off one of the messages for which he 



220 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

has become famous. He deplored the disaster to 
Russia in heartfelt words, describing how Russia's 
sorrow was Germany's grief. But when a similar 
misfortune overtook a Japanese battleship the 
submarine cables were not troubled with William's 
condolences to the Mikado — perhaps it was on 
account of the expense of sending cablegrams! 
The German Press resented the telegraphic activity 
of the Emperor, as the more reputable journals had 
resented the flagrant breaches of neutrality ; but 
William rebuked the journalists, and exhorted them 
to discretion, with a sigh of regret that his own 
country is so small that he has no room for a 
Siberia, to which to banish unruly editors, like 
brother Nicholas. 

Thus William and Nicholas walk side by side 
through the pleasaunces of Empire and Autocracy. 
Kind William supports his feeble friend with a hand 
stretched out across the fence which divides them. 
And a certain Russian sage, peering over the 
barrier, sums up kind William in a sentence — ''a 
narrow-minded, ill-educated, vain man, with the 
ideals of a German yi2/;^/^^r. " 

There is yet another way in which Germany 
assists the Tsar to maintain his autocratic rule, and 
that is by subscribing the Russian Government 
loans which, since the outbreak of the war, have 
been issued at frequent intervals. A hundred and 
fifty millions of marks were snapped up by Germany 
a short time ago, in spite of the fact that a trifle of 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 221 

two hundred million marks has been owing to her 
from Russia for some years. So, as it stands at 
present, Germany is up to the neck in Russian 
securities, which do not appear to be so very secure. 
But William is quite right to assist Russia with a 
little money, for he is looking forward to the day 
when Nicholas will divide up the Far East with 
him. He has once already put a spoke in the 
wheel of Japan, and made her fight a second time 
for the possession of Port Arthur. Nicholas owes 
him something for that, and when the pecuniary 
obligations are added to the score, it becomes 
obvious that William will have a very powerful lever 
in his hands when the final settlement after the war 
takes place. But the distressing feature of the 
situation is, that it looks as though Nicholas will 
have very little of the Far East left to divide with 
William when the settlement comes. 

Whilst William is making his little calculations in 
Berlin, Nicholas is staring distractedly at his empty 
treasure houses in St. Petersburg, and wondering 
where he is to turn next for a loan. So far from 
repaying the capital of the money which he already 
owes to foreign countries, he is forced to raise new 
loans to meet the interest on his old debts, with no 
prospect of ever redeeming the capital. But still 
he continues to borrow at pawnbrokers rates of 
interest. For how long his government can continue 
to raise money in this way it is beyond my powers 
of calculation to reckon. But there is another source 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

from which Nicholas is beginning to draw supplies. 
As the head of the Orthodox Church, in consulta- 
tion with M. Pobiedonostseff, he has decided that 
the Holy Mother can spare some of the treasures 
which the Gods on Earth have consecrated to her 
use. So the churches and monasteries are paying 
toll to the treasury. When the money is exhausted 
there will still remain a fabulous wealth of jewellery, 
gold and precious stones in the ikons of St. Isaac's 
Cathedral, and of the Terema, together with the 
riches of the Cathedral of the Assumption and of 
the Cathedral of the Annunciation, and of a thousand 
cathedrals and churches throughout Russia. There- 
fore the treasures of the Church will eventually be 
devoted to the good cause of waging war against 
the heathen Japanese, and to the payment of the 
Cossacks for their humane work in keeping order 
among the Tsar s subjects at home. 

But how are these precious things to be disposed 
of, and to what country will they go ? The Mont^ 
de-Pietd in France only advances a tenth of the 
value on articles deposited. Even the German 
Stadts Pfandverleiher will lend no more than a fifth 
We shall, therefore, in all probability see them 
adorning the windows of Mr. Attenboroughs 
establishments, for the admiration and amazement 
of the good people of London. 

France is running with Germany a close and 
dangerous race for the favours and friendship of 
Russia — and both of them know it. Nicholas 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 223 

Alexandrovitch has as much love for one as for 
the other ; but so long as he can make use of both 
he will keep on good terms with them. A time 
will come, sooner or later, when Germany and 
France will feel the heavy boot of Russia behind 
them — but that will not be in Nicholas' day. For 
although France and Russia are in the bonds of an 
alliance, the entente cordiale does not extend to the 
people of Russia, and it is scarcely credible that the 
people of Republican France can appreciate the 
incongruity of allying themselves with autocracy. 
In my own experience I generally observed that 
the French were spoken of with contempt by the 
Russians ; and this feeling extended to official 
and well-to-do circles. The entente cordiale which 
rests upon such slender foundations as the con- 
venience of an autocrat and the vanity of a bourgeois 
Ministry is not likely to be lasting. Meantime 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch makes hay while the sun 
shines. 

Was there ever a more ill-assorted alliance than 
this between France and Russia .^^ It reminds me 
of a Turkish bath where, stripped of our clothing, 
we all receive the same service and go through the 
same performance. But when we have donned our 
clothes again, each goes his own way — the duke to 
his mansion, the sausage-maker to his shop. But 
there the analogy ends. For duke and sausage- 
maker go their ways without asking favours of each 
other ; but not so Nicholas Alexandrovitch, When 



224 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

he emerges with M. Loubet from the grateful 
warmth of the entente cordiale he informs his 
repubHcan companion that he is at hberty to pay 
for the privilege of associating with autocracy, and 
that the accommodation can take the form of a loan 
which will never be repaid. France is paying dearly 
for the condescension of Nicholas Alexandrovitch in 
deigning to take Madame Loubet in to dinner, and 
in allowing the Tsaritsa to be ''armed in" by good 
M. Loubet. She holds millions of francs of worth- 
less Russian securities, yet she must continue to dip 
into her republican stocking again and again to 
help Imperial Russia — first, because she is senti- 
mental and loyal to the entente cordiale; and 
secondly, because she must save her face before 
the world, and therefore she flings good money to 
retrieve that which is almost lost. 

The Russian people themselves have more regard 
for the Germans than the French, for they can see 
that the most prosperous farms in Russia are in the 
hands of German farmers ; that the most paying 
manufactories and distilleries are under German 
management ; that many of the professors in the 
Universities of Russia are Germans. It was Alex- 
ander II. who imported Germans into Russia to 
reform his army and educational methods ; and in 
certain Provinces the Germans have settled and 
taken root. A reaction against the German invasion 
set in later, and many of them were sent back to 
their Fatherland, more especially the professors at 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 225 

the Universities. Enough, however, remained in 
Russia to convince the Russians themselves that 
the German methods are superior to their own ; 
and though they call them '' Nemetzkie kolbassV' 
(German sausages) they understand each other well 
enough. But the French they will never under- 
stand. 

As it stands, France and Germany both appa- 
rently desire the goodwill of Russia. France has 
the advantage over Germany of an alliance, which 
may at any minute drag her into war. Kaiser 
William, to counteract the alliance, sheds copious 
crocodile s tears over Russia's reverses at the hands 
of tne ungodly Japanese. The harder the knocks 
which Russia receives the more William weeps and 
telegraphs his condolences to Nicholas. And since 
it is in the hours of adversity that we can best 
estimate the value of friendship, William has plenty 
of opportunities of showing the genuine nature of 
his affection for Russia by lending her money, and 
by infringing the laws of neutrality on her behalf. 
These are good practical ways of showing sympathy 
with a distressed neighbour, and France, who has a 
conscience which will not permit her to vie with her 
rival in supplying Russia with the contraband of 
war, has to rest content with her alliance, and with 
lending what little money she has to spare to her 
autocratic lover— like a poor little servant girl who 
is fleeced of her wages by a swell confidence trickster. 
If William could induce the Reichstag to assist his 



226 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

brother Nicholas with a war loan of a few millions 
of marks, how happy he would be ! But William is 
not an autocrat, and the national purse-strings are 
held in other and wiser hands. 

Not satisfied with the loans which he can extract 
from France and Germany, Nicholas Alexandrovitch 
scours the whole world for money to bolster up his 
autocracy. In America he negotiated a loan for 
twenty-five millions. England, Austria, Italy, and 
even Switzerland and Spain have been tapped. 
And every coin which they subscribe goes to main- 
tain in power the most barbarous and corrupt form 
of government that the world has ever known. 

That the Jews should give their support to 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch is to me inexcusable. Yet 
I see that Messrs. Mendelssohn and Co., of Berlin, S. 
Bleichroeder, the Director of the Disconto Gesell- 
sckaftdcnd. \h^ Berliner Handels Gesellschaft, Messrs. 
Lippmann and Rosenthal and Co. and others have 
undertaken to float a Russian war loan for the sum 
of 500,000,000 marks. I wonder what that great 
philanthropist and philosopher Moses Mendel would 
have said had he known that his descendants would 
subscribe money to uphold the power of the Tsars of 
Russia, who have murdered and oppressed their race 
for generations, and whose representative to-day is 
seeking by every means to extirpate the remnant of 
Israel from Russia? Are Kishineff and Gomel 
already forgotten ? Or are the present representa- 
tives of the houses of Mendelssohn, Lippmann, and 



THE POWER BEHIND TSARDOM 227 

Rosenthal so youthful that they cannot remember 
the spring of the year 1881 ? Do the names of 
Kieff, Kharkoff, Yaroslav, and Smealah convey 
nothing to them? If they do not, I can inform 
them that Jewish blood was spilt like water at these 
places with the connivance of the Tsar's officials. 
The twenty-five million pounds which they are 
underwriting for the assistance of the Tsar of Russia 
will enable him to send more Jews to the war, and 
to keep more Cossacks at home to *' preserve order"' 
in the cities of the Pale. Of all the nations of the 
world the Jews should be the last to support the 
autocracy in Russia. They will buy no concessions 
for their persecuted brethren in the Tsar s dominions 
with their money. They will only help to pay for 
scorpions to replace the whips which now chastise 
them. If the conscience of these Jewish gentlemen 
does not reproach them for seeking to make filthy 
lucre at the expense of their unfortunate Russian 
kinsmen, it must surely be because they have no 
conscience. 

The great officials of the Tsar are travelling all 
over Europe in the quest of gold for the Tsar s 
treasury. From Petersburg to Berlin, and from 
Berlin to Paris they hasten, crying, ** Give ! Give!*' 
The friendship of the Tsar of Russia must be paid 
for in gold ; otherwise the Tsar has no use for 
friendship. Now that France and Germany have 
been bled to the last rouble, the Tsar is making 
friendlv overtures to Great Britain. There is talk 



228 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

of an ** Anglo-Franco-Russian entente" — when the 
Dogger Bank affair has ** blown over/' May 
Heaven grant that our weak-kneed statesmen are 
not drawn into this culminating disgrace ! 

The great power behind Tsardom is the financial 
support which Nicholas Alexandrovitch receives 
from the countries of Europe. If Germany, 
France, and England would refuse to grant any 
further loans to Russia, an end would quickly come 
to Tsardom, and to the war in Manchuria, and to 
many other undesirable things. It is these three 
countries, therefore, who are mainly responsible for 
the curse of autocracy in Russia ; and it is against 
their wealth that the revolutionary party in Russia 
has to contend. 

We all know the story of the Yankee who was in 
grips with a bear, and prayed Heaven to help him 
overcome it. But the bear still prevailed, and the 
Yankee prayed again, ** O Lord, if you won't help 
me, don't help the b'ar. Stand by and see fair- 
play." That is the attitude of the revolutionary 
party towards the countries of Europe. They are a 
match for the Church and Tsardom in Russia ; but 
it is the financial and moral support which autocracy 
receives from the outside world that makes the 
Russian man of liberty support his head on his 
wasted hands and weep, thinking of the rivers of 
tears and blood which are being shed in his un- 
happy country. . 



CHAPTER XIX 

SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 

The greatest calamity that can befall a weak man is 
to be surrounded by sycophants who constantly 
pander to his vanity and encourage him to think 
well of himself. To the strong man flattery is, as 
a rule, harmless ; he discharges it from his mind as 
it were a nights dream which is forgotten with 
awakening ; it may even be beneficial to him by 
assistinp- him to select his friends from the ranks 
of his enemies. And though a strong man be 
vain, as many are, yet his vanity is often a virtue 
rather than a vice, for it may prompt him to good 
works. There is a vanity of well-doing as well as 
a vanity of ostentation, and the strong man with 
brains knows the difference. Flattery is powerless 
to influence the vanity of well-doing — it may break 
its head against the stone wall, but it cannot pene- 
trate. How far could flattery go with such men as 
Marcus Aurelius, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Abraham 
Lincoln, Herbert Spencer, Leon Tolstoy, or Theo- 
dore Roosevelt ? 

But it is a very different matter when a weakling 
who holds a position above his fellow men has his 



230 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

ostentatious vanity tickled by the flattery of those 
who surround him, whether his position is due to 
his own merits or to the accident of birth. We 
have all known authors, musicians, poets, and men 
of science who might have been great, but who, 
entertaining an exaggerated idea of the import- 
ance of their early successes and carried away by 
fulsome praise, have become hopeless mediocrities, 
everything that was good in them being swallowed 
up by an overweening self-conceit The same 
can be said of men who have been divinely 
gifted with the right to rule over their fellow 
men, and who happen to be so unfortunate as to 
be endowed with a weak disposition. Vanity 
destroys them, and with them, alas ! innocent lives 
over whom the weakling happens to rule. The 
isolation of their exalted position renders them 
particularly liable to flattery. They are placed on 
the pinnacle to which the eyes and ears of the 
world are directed. When they speak even words 
of fatuous inanity there is a chorus of admiration 
rom the gaping world. The royal saying is trimmed 
and pointed, and peddled to the crowd as a don mot. 
As a case in point there is the German Emperor. 
When he speaks, which is, unfortunately, far too 
often, his words resound all over Europe. His 
speeches are printed in every language, and are 
collected into book form and translated. Demos- 
thenes is requested to take a back seat, for Kaiser 
Wilhelm has spoken ! And what is there in his 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 231 

speeches to command the attention of the world ? 
A great deal of rhetorical pomposity, ** the ideals 
of a German Junker,'' and a total absence of tact. 
Nevertheless, the world tells William that he is a 
very fine orator — and he believes it. 

Then he poses as an artist and art critic, and the 
shades of Zeuxis, Michael Angelo, and Turner are 
breaking up their palettes and applying for jobs 
on the County Council. But it is whispered that 
William only suggests the subjects of the pictures 
which are attributed to him. Nevertheless, the 
world would have him believe that he is a great 
artist — and it is not difficult to persuade him. 

As a composer and critic of music William has 
world-wide fame. Of the elevating tendency which 
his royal patronage has on German music we can 
judge by the bands which come from his country to 
our London streets. Wagner did well to die before 
his fame was eclipsed by his Emperors musical 
genius. 

On university education William is a great 
authority, and he delights in the '* Hochs ! " of the 
students which greet him when he condescends to 
address them. Yet William failed to pass the 
entrance examination to Heidelberg University, 
and he cannot even write a letter in correct German 
without assistance and revision. 

But his decisions on matters artistic, musical, and 
educational are paraded for the admiration of the 
world because they come from the pinnacle of the 



232 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

German throne. Does any one seriously believe if 
William, shorn of his kingly prerogatives, were to 
ojffer himself as a critic of art, music or education 
to the editor of a halfpenny comic paper, that his 
services would be accepted ? But so long as there are 
men in his own country and abroad to tell him what 
a great authority he is on all things from policy to 
penholders, William will continue to believe them, 
and to shake the world with his bombastic utter- 
ances. Whilst those of his own subjects who 
venture to hint that he is not all that he claims to be 
incur the charge of lese-majestL But if they may 
not vent their opinions on the abilities of their 
Emperor, the German people at least are capable 
of estimating the value which is to be attached to 
his words. They listen, and, for the rest, leave 
him to his own folly. 

But it is not so with Nicholas Alexandrovitch. 
The people of Russia in their attitude towards their 
monarch differ widely from the people of Germany. 
They have to suffer for his follies and weaknesses, 
while the Germans only experience a mild irritation. 
Like William, Nicholas is addicted to the crudest 
forms of flattery, and his vanity is of the most 
ostentatious kind. His pigmy brain is crowded with 
notions of his self-importance and righteousness to 
such an extent that he is fully persuaded of his 
divine personality — and nothing can convince him 
otherwise. 

Whilst he is automatically filled with pomp and 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 233 

vanity in his own country, he is not without his f 
foreign contingent of flatterers and admirers. There ^ 
is a crook in the brains of a certain class of people 
which prevents them from viewing men and things 
in their true perspective* To them a celebrity 
must of necessity be possessed of certain virtues ; a 
notoriety, of all the vices. A celebrity is a being to 
be approached with reverent awe, and a prejudiced 
mind ; a notoriety is to be shunned without a 
hearing. A celebrity is something more than a 
man ; a notoriety, something worse than a beast. 
To secure a few minutes' conversation with a celebrity \ 
is a privilege which entitles them to speak of him as 
'' My friend the High Muck-a-Muck ; '' to be in the 
same parish with a notoriety gives them the right 
to swear to his infamy. As a general rule a celebrity 
is a foreigner ; a notoriety, a fellow countryman. It 
is a curious development of cerebral atrophy, and it 
is very prevalent at the present day. One of the 
symptoms of this disease is the desire of the afflicted 
person to advertise himself to the world as a sufferer. 
He will clamber up on to a public platform, or rush 
into print in the columns of the newspapers, in 
order to announce to the world that he is a crank 
and faddist, and incapable of an unprejudiced 
judgment. 

Foremost in the ranks of those who suffer from 
this distressing malady in our own country is 
Mr. W. T. Stead. The disease in his case has 
reached such an acute stage that he finds it necessary 



234 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

to edit a periodical of his own, in order that he may- 
convince the world of his infirmity. Mr. Steads 
pet celebrity is Nicholas Alexandrovitch. He has 
spoken to him on three occasions, and he has had 
the inestimable privilege of corresponding with him. 
Therefore Mr. Stead is fully qualified to speak with 
authority on the character of Nicholas as a man and 
as a monarch ; and for the same reasons he is 
entitled to give the lie direct to a gentleman who 
wrote an article in the Quarterly Review on the 
Tsar, who, as I happen to know, is intimately 
acquainted with Nicholas Alexandrovitch. Not 
content with abuse of the author of the article in 
question, Mr. Stead condemns with him the publisher 
of the Quarterly Review for daring to publish dis- 
paraging criticism of his pet celebrity. Here are 
some of his remarks : 

" The article entitled ' The Tsar,* which appears 
in the Qitarterly Review for July, is about as faithful 
a delineation of the character of Nicholas H. as the 
lampoon which disgraced Reynolds s newspaper on 
the death of the late Queen was an accurate picture 
of Queen Victoria. It is amazing that such a 
malignant libel should find a place in the pages of 
the most respected organ of English letters, and of 
English Conservatism. 

** The publication of such a lampoon at a time when 
the Russian nation is smarting under the sting of 
unexpected reverses which they attribute to what 
they regard as the absurd devotion of their Emperor 



SOME BRITISH OPINIOxNS OF THE TSAR 235 

to the cause of peace, is to say the least unfortunate. 
Even if every word was true, the moment is surely 
ill-chosen for the appearance of such an article in 
such a quarter. But it is not true. . . . His aims (the 
Tsar s) were admittedly admirable, but he did not 
seem to have the iron in his blood necessary to keep 
his Ministers in check. That he is, to all intents and 
ipurposes, a modern man deeply imbued with the 
most advanced humanitarian and philanthropic ideas 
of his time, all who have had the privilege of coming 
into personal contact with him have testified. . . . 
The Tsar, as I knew him, was a man whose chief 
fault was an indisposition born of the temperament 
of an Imperial Hamlet to put forth his authority and 
assert his right to control the affairs of the Empire 
over which he reigned. 

** The man who told me that the burden of the 
Imperial crown was so heavy that he would not 
inflict it upon his worst enemy, the author of the 
Peace Conference, and the philosophic opponent of 
the domination of Asiatics by Europeans, is not 
recognisable behind the diabolic mask which is 
offered us by the Quarterly reviewer as the true 
Nicholas II." 

Thus writes Mr. Stead of his pet celebrity Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, and of the author and publisher of 
the article which appeared in the Quarterly Review. 
It is hardly worth while to traverse line by line 
the surmises which he advances in favour of his, 
acquaintance, for we know that Mr. Stead suffers 1 



236 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

from cerebral atrophy, which distorts his vision and 
compels him to advertise his infirmity. But in the 
concluding sentence which I have quoted Mr. Stead 
makes direct statements of the Tsar's conceptions, 
and here I join issue with him. In the first place, 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch told Mr. Stead that the 
burden of the Imperial crown was so heavy that he 
would not inflict it upon his worst enemy. And yet 
Nicholas Alexandrovitch clings to his autocracy with 
I the tenacity of a leech. He could lighten the burden 
: of the crown, and confer an inestimable boon on 
Russia by granting a Constitution to his people, and 
by so doing he would unquestionably be acting 
rightly and in accordance with his duty to himself 
and to his fellow men. Mr. Stead poses as a friend 
of liberty, and he will scarcely gainsay the truth of 
my assertion. Therefore we are driven to the con- 
clusion that when Nicholas Alexandrovitch told 
Mr. Stead of the heavy burden of his responsi- 
bilities he was engaged in the pastime vulgarly 
known as *' pulling his leg." 

Mr. Stead then trots out the Peace Conference 
as evidence of the Tsars magnanimity. Had Mr. 
Stead's sense of humour been commensurate with 
his admiration of Nicholas II. he would hardly have 
brought forward this particular project at a time 
when the champion of peace is engaged in waging 
one of the bloodiest wars of modern history. 

Finally, Mr. Stead speaks of Nicholas II. as ''the 
philosophic opponent of the domination of Asiatics 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 237 

by Europeans." But that the opposition on the , 
part of Nicholas Alexandrovitch is purely philo- • 
sophic is abundantly proved by his ill-starred 
attempt to annex Manchuria. In fact, had Mr. 
Stead ransacked every ukaze and act of administra- 
tion and public utterance of the present Tsar of 
Russia, he could not have found three more unfor- 
tunate examples to bring forward in support of his 
** advanced humanitarian and philanthropic ideas" 
than those which I have quoted from Mr. Stead's 
Review of Reviews, 

But since Mr. Stead is the champion in this 
country of Nicholas Alexandrovitch and his per- 
sonal friend ; and since he knows him to be intelli- 
gent, well-informed, humane, philanthropic, modest, 
well-meaning, and I know not what else — therefore 
I challenge Mr. Stead, by the love which he bears 
to Nicholas Alexandrovitch, to name one single 
public act which he has done during the ten years 
of his reign as Tsar of Russia which has been of 
real benefit to his people. Mr. Stead owes it to his 
friend and to the world to tell what he knows of 
Nicholas's good actions. I do not ask much — only 
one good action in ten years. If Mr. Stead is 
unable to name one on his own responsibility, then 
let him go to the Russian Embassy and make in- 
quiries there. And if Count Benckendorff cannot 
enlighten him, then let him apply to the Tsar him- 
self, and ask him to tell him one good action for the 
benefit of his people which he has done since he 



238 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

ascended the throne of the Romanoffs. And if Mr. 
Stead is still unable to satisfy the desire of the 
public to know something in favour of the Tsar of 
Russia, then let me recommend him to give up 
writing fulsome panegyrics of his favourite celebrity, 
and stick to dramatic criticism, of which, I under- , 
stand, he has lately become a leading light. 



CHAPTER XX 

SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR {continued) 

Another editor of a monthly periodical who 
entertains mistaken ideas about the Tsar and the 
Government of Russia is Mr. Henry Norman. Mr. 
Norman, so far as I know, is not a dramatic critic 
like Mr. Stead, but he is a member of the House of 
Commons, and poses as an authority on Russian 
affairs on the strength of a rapid journey which he 
accomplished through the dominions of the Tsar. 
In the course of his travels he too had the felicity 
to meet and talk with Nicholas Alexandrovitch, and 
this conversation with the embodiment of autocracy 
has coloured all his views on Russian affairs. But 
the views of Mr. Norman were not confined to 
mental impressions, for he is an amateur photo- 
grapher of considerable merit, and he made pictures 
of everything which he came across in Russia, from 
the Tsar's treasure downwards. He then collected 
his mental and photographic views into the pages 
of a weighty volume under the title of ** All the 
Russias." Mr. Norman might have saved himself 
the trouble of going to Russia if the production of 
this work were the object of his visit ; for he could 



240 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

have taken his mental views from the pages of the 
official Russian press, with the help of a translator, 
and the photographic views he could have procured 
in the Strand. 

I should have refrained from mentioning either 
Mr. Norman s name or his book, had it not been for 
the fact that Mr. Norman himself has attempted to 
discredit other writers who are better qualified to 
give an opinion on Russian affairs than he is ; and 
furthermore that he has mentioned my name in the 
September number of his magazine in a manner 
which gives the impression that I am a Russian 
anarchist. As regards Mr. Norman's opinion of 
those who have written books on Russia from 
personal experience of the country and Government 
and without Russian official assistance, he is reported 
to have said : *' Very many of the attacks on the 
Tsar and of the lurid pictures of the internal con- 
dition of Russia which find circulation in this country 
and elsewhere are the work of political exiles and 
other disaffected Russians, whose sole object is to 
discredit the Government with whom they are at 
enmity.'* 

I have already answered Mr. Norman on this 
point in the columns of a London morning paper, 
and therefore I shall not labour it further. Though 
I happen to be of Huguenot descent, I am proud 
to call myself an Englishman ; yet I have made an 
attack on the Russian Government, and I am now 
making another, without any personal enmity against 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 241 

the Tsar or his Bureaucracy. It may be that I am 
doing very little good, but I am happy in my 
conscience to think that at least my intention is 
good. I have been a tramp in Russia for many 
years, and I have seen and appreciated the miserable 
existence of the people of Russia, and the tyranny 
to which they are subjected by their Government. 
To know what I know of the internal condition of 
Russia and to keep silence is an impossibility. I may 
be told that it is no business of mine — then I make it 
my business. As a citizen of the world I claim the 
right to point out tyranny wheresoever I come 
across it, and to cry out against it . What good my 
crying out may do I cannot say ; but at least I have 
the satisfaction of knowing that I am doing what I 
can, and that the charges which I bring against the 
Government of Russia are the truth and nothing 
but the truth. 

But to return to Mr. Henry Norman. Having, 
I trust, convinced him that one, at least, of the 
writers who have made *' attacks on the Tsar,*' and 
** drawn lurid pictures of the internal condition 
of Russia,'' is not a '* disaffected Russian," and 
that, in speaking of the misery of the Russian 
people and of the appalling corruption of the land, 
he was dealing with subjects of which Mr. Norman 
himself saw nothing in his hasty journey through 
Russia, I will now turn to the second count which I 
have mentioned, namely, Mr. Norman's reference 
to me as an anarchist. In the September number of 

Q 



242 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

The Worlds Work and Play, a magazine edited by 
Mr. Norman, referring to the assassination of M. de 
Plehve in the editorial article, Mr. Norman rebukes 
the American nation and the British Press for giving 
expression to sentiments of relief that the reign of 
terror which de Plehve had revived in Russia had 
been brought to a close by his death. The vials of 
his wrath are more particularly poured out upon me 
because I gave an interview on the subject to the 
London Daily Express. But, as there are several 
points in the article in question to which I should 
like to call attention I shall take the liberty of 
quoting a few passages and commenting on themx. 

"The assassination of M. de Plehve, the Minister 
of the Interior," writes Mr. Norman, " is one of 
those appalling crimes which disfigure civilisation 
from time to time." 

The first point which the reader should notice is 
the inapplicability of the word *' civilisation " to the 
case. It is preposterous to call the present form of 
government in Russia " civilisation," and therefore 
it was not a crime against *' civilisation." I assert 
that the present form of government in Russia is 
anarchy. It has neither justice nor ** social com- 
pact " ; the crime committed by Sozonoft was a 
crime against an enemy to mankind, and it must be 
judged accordingly. Mr. Norman did not see fit to 
mention in his article that de Plehve destroyed 
innocent lives ruthlessly for many years before and 
after he became Minister of the Interior. He did 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 243 

not mention that de Plehve had ordered men and 
women to be knouted to death. He did not men- 
tion that de Plehve organised the massacre of 
Kishineff, a fact of which I have absolute proof. 
Mr. Norman goes on to say : 

** M. de Plehve, according to two careful students 
who had occasion to discuss the matter with him — 
Mr. Arnold White and Mr. Lucien Wolf — was, at 
the time of his murder, preparing to relax some of 
the regulations which press so hardly upon the Jews 
of Russia." 

This ingenuous statement causes me to smile, 
though I can perfectly well understand that both the 
gentlemen named were favourably impressed by de 
Plehve at their interview with him, and were justi- 
fiably deceived in the matter, for reasons which I 
will presently explain. But it is such an old, old 
story. There has not been a Minister, Governor, 
or Tsar assassinated in Russia of whom it has not 
been said that he was on the eve of reforms. Mr. 
Norman himself points to the case of Alexander II 
who, had his life been spared a few days longer, 
would have granted a Constitution to Russia. It 
was the same with M. Bogolepoff, the late Minister 
of Education, also with M. Siphyagin and General 
Bobrikoff ; all these Ministers had formulated im- 
provements in their departments which they would 
certainly have carried out had they been permitted 
to live a few minutes longer ! And now it is the 
same with de Plehve. But if de Plehve entertained 



244 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

any notion of granting relief to the down-trodden 
people, he had plenty of opportunities of giving 
effect to his good resolutions. He was warned 
more than once of the fate which awaited him if he 
did not mend his^ways ; yet his reforms are unheard 
of until after his death. 

I can speak with confidence about de Plehve 
because I knew him for many years. I knew him 
long before the *Me " was attached to his name — 
before his name was Plehve even, but Plehdee. I 
knew him when he was nothing more than a plain 
notary in Warsaw. Afterwards he became a lawyer, 
and then a prosecuting attorney — and after that 
came **de Plehve.*' I knew de Plehve when he 
was by no means incorruptible, when he would take 
bribes freely, and grew fat upon them. Then, as 
his power increased, he changed his system from 
taking bribes to using brute force. There was a 
time, before I knew him, when he used to run about 
barefooted, singing Lettish songs, a little homeless 
waif. He was befriended and adopted by a family 
who were half Lithuanian and half Polish. They 
clothed him, cared for him and sent him to school. 
In return, when he became the all-powerful M. de 
Plehve, he requited his benefactors by sending them 
to Nijni Udinsk to wash gold. 

There was a young lawyer, Paskevitch by name, 
who knew de Plehve s history, and cried out against 
the iniquity of de Plehve's action in banishing his 
benefactors to Siberia. He was the only man 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 245 

living of whom de Plehve was afraid. One night 
Paskevitch was roused from his sleep by two gorodo- 
voySy who informed him that they had found revolu- 
tionary literature in his house and that he must 
dress himself at once and go with them. Fortu- 
nately for Paskevitch, he happened at the time to 
have a few thousand roubles by him. He gave a 
hundred roubles to ^dLch oi xh^ gorodovoys^ and they 
allowed him to escape on the promise that he 
would quit Russia at once. A few days afterwards 
Paskevitch arrived in London, and there he con- 
tinued to live whilst his roubles lasted. When they 
were all spent he found employment as foreign 
correspondent in a large commercial house, where 
he worked for more than a year. Then he began 
to correspond again with his friends in Russia, and 
de Plehve was informed of his whereabouts. He 
induced some of Paskevitchs friends to persuade 
him to return to Russia by assurance of de Plehve's 
goodwill towards him, and by promises of remu- 
nerative employment. Paskevitch took the bait 
which was offered him and returned to Russia. He 
was arrested as soon as he crossed the frontier and 
charged with being a revolutionary. Without trial 
or investigation, and without a friend in the world 
to help him, he was deported to Siberia. 

Six years later I went in person to Siberia to 
look for Paskevitch. When I arrived at the Island 
of Saghalin I was informed that Paskevitch had 
died two years before. Having satisfied myself of 



246 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

the truth of the story, I returned to St. Petersburg, 
where I laid the whole case before an influential 
Prince, asking him to take it up and bring the crime 
home to de Plehve. He placed the matter in the 
hands of the Minister of Justice. In three days* 
time I received an intimation from de Plehve that 
if I were bent on meddling with the affairs of criminal 
prisoners, it would be his duty to see that I was safely 
escorted across the frontier. The same day I handed 
the documents which I had collected with reference 
to Paskevitch's case to the Prince, who laid them 
before the Tsar, Nicholas II. And there the whole 
matter ended. But a few days afterwards I was 
cautioned by my ambassador not to make trouble 
witii certain officials, and to leave the adjustment of 
the wrongs done to the Russian people to the 
Russian law and officials. Which was no doubt 
very sound advice from an ambassadorial point of 
view ! De Plehve was decorated by Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch shortly afterwards, but I am unable 
to say whether this fresh distinction was conferred 
upon him in consequence of his action in the 
Paskevitch case. 

It is not at all surprising to me that Mr. Arnold 
White and Mr. Lucien Wolf should have been favour- 
ably impressed by de Plehve, for he was one of those 
men who are endowed with the subtlety of the 
serpent. To know de Plehve was to know two 
men. He was a being with a dual personality, but 
with absolute control over both his natures. He 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 247 

could be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde at will. He could 
shed tears like a woman and enlist the sympathy of 
those who surrounded him until they were ready to 
swear that he was a much abused man. He was 
impressive and gentle in his manner of expounding 
his philosophy, which left upon the mind of his 
interviewer a conviction of sincerity. At other 
times he could be passionately cruel and vindictive. 
His wrath was a flame consuming ruthlessly all who 
incurred his displeasure. He knew neither pity nor 
remorse, and he faced fearlessly the consequences of 
his own brutality. In these Jekyll and Hyde moods 
I have seen the man de Plehve frequently, both 
before and after he attained to his position of 
power. 

That there are people in Russia who, in spite of 
the ghastly record of his public career, believe in 
the humane and gentle nature of de Plehve is evi- 
dent from a letter which appeared in the Press from 
a relative of the murdered man. He attempts to 
justify de Plehves conduct as Minister of the 
Interior, and seeks to clear him from the charge 
of instigating the Kishineff massacre. *' This 
calumny,'' he writes, '' made still more unbearable 
the sickness of heart which he experienced on hearing 
of the calamity which had taken place. . . . There 
are people who cherish his memory as that of a 
blameless father and family man, who have wept 
over his shattered remains lying in their coffin, who 
have fainted with grief and misery by his grave." 



248 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

We must all, of course, sympathise with the 
family of the late Minister of the Interion But 
to pretend that his death was regretted in Russia by 
a single man or woman outside the immediate circle 
of his family and of his employers would be hypo- 
crisy. If tears were shed over his grave they were 
tears of joy that an end had come at last to the 
reign of terror which was associated with his name. 

To return once more to Mr. Norman s article, I 
come now to the paragraph in which he takes ex- 
ception to the American nation, the British press, 
and, incidentally, to me. 

** We can only hope that the Tsar and his Ministers 
will have the supreme moral courage to ignore the 
crime so far as concerns any measure of domestic 
progress they may have had in contemplation. 
Certainly it requires great moral courage to do 
this in the face of the glorification with which the 
crime has been received in many quarters abroad. 
For example, the New York correspondent of the 
Daily Chronicle cabled on August i that five 
thousand Jews *held one of the most remarkable 
meetings that has ever taken place in New York in 
glorification of the assassin of M. de Plehve,' and 
added : ' The audience was largely composed of revo- 
lutionists and anarchists, and was organised by the 
New York branch of the United Russia Revolu- 
tionist Organisations. Speeches were made by 
agitators, who worked their audience into a frenzy 
of enthusiasm by their praise of the man who had 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 249 

murdered the Russian Minister.' It is a remark- 
able comment upon the twentieth century that the 
American people think it consistent with the duties 
of a civilised nation to permit such an exhibition as 
this. To match it on a smaller scale from our own 
country I may quote the interview with Mr. Carl 
Joubert, published the morning after the assassina- 
tion by the London Daily Express, in which the 
following passage occurs : 

** * Bobrikofif has gone, Plehve has gone. You 
ask me who will be next ? ' 

** Mr. Joubert, with a troubled face, leaned forward 
in his chair. *I dare not give you the answer that I 
fear.' " 

Now Mr. Norman is a British Member of Parlia- 
ment, representing a constituency of a liberty-loving 
people, and yet he advocates the suppression of free 
speech. Had he known more of the Constitution of 
the United States he would not have suggested that 
the American people ought not to permit a public 
meeting to be held. The fact that Mr. Norman 
objects to the nature of the discussion and the tone 
of the meeting is hardly sufficient cause for the 
muzzling of the whole of America and the British 
Press for printing reports of the meeting, or for 
publishing interviews with private individuals. If 
Mr. Norman would go to Russia — not as a Cook s 
tourist, but permanently — he would find in that 
country the state of affairs which he desires to see 
introduced into America and Great Britain. There 



250 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

he could bask In the sunshine of autocracy, sheltered 
from the cold blasts of public opinion by the restric- 
tions of the censor and the secret police. 

As regards the meeting in New York which has 
scandalised Mr. Norman it must not be forgotten, 
as I have already pointed out, that the people of 
Russia are fighting the anarchy which prevails under 
autocracy with its own weapons. If de Plehve had 
not ruthlessly hounded to death thousands of innocent 
people with the approval and sanction of Nicholas 
Alexandrovitch, he would not have met his fate at 
the hands of the people of Russia. The crime 
which deprived him of his life was probably the 
means of averting years of persecution and blood- 
shed by his agency. I do not say that the end 
justifies the means ; but it is an extenuating cir- 
cumstance which must be taken into account De 
Plehve s death was not an act of vengeance, but an 
act of prevention. The meeting which was held in 
New York was composed of men who, in all pro- 
bability, had been driven out of Russia by the policy 
of persecution in which de Plehve persisted. I will 
undertake to say that a large proportion of them 
could show the scars of the Cossack's knout on their 
bodies. They had been driven from their homes 
by tyranny and oppression ; are they then to be 
condemned as beyond the pale of humanity because 
they rejoice when the malign influence which ruined 
their lives is powerless for further mischief.'^ Mr. 
Norman sees fit to class me with them ** on a 



SOME BRITISH OPINIONS OF THE TSAR 261 

smaller scale/* I am much obliged to Mr. Norman. 
I am not sure that, on the whole, I do not prefer to 
be classed with those who are striving however 
mistakenly, in the cause of liberty, than with those in 
the most respectable circles who are its opponents. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 

To describe the true inwardness of Russia is a theme 
which well might give pause to the ablest pen ; and 
a new volume might be begun where this is ending. 
Nevertheless, in the full consciousness of my own 
incompetence for the task, I set pen to paper to 
touch briefly some of the chords in the great soul of 
Russia which have awakened responsive echoes in 
mine. So, away with Autocracy and Bureaucracy, 
and bitter strife ! And let me once more be a tramp 
in the vast expanse of Russia, with the life of her 
people stirring like a breeze in field and forest and 
hamlet, whispering thoughts which are not our 
thoughts, and suggesting ideals foreign to our 
nature. 

For I have been a tramp in Russia — a bradjaga 
as they call it — untrammelled by social obligations 
and the cares of domicile, wandering in town or 
country at will, and making friends or foes of the 
companions of the hour. In some particulars I 
differed from the country-born bradjaga; for, 
whereas he has no passport, no money, and very 
little clothing, I carried a pretentious-looking docu 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 253 

ment with a heavy seal, which entitled me to be at 
large in Russia subject to the usual restrictions. I 
possessed a coat or two more than my fellow tramps 
and I had an account with the Credit Lyonnais 
which would have filled them with disgust. Now 
the Russian bradjaga differs from the British tramp. 
In the first place he really does tramp, having no 
Green Park in which to sprawl on the grass, and 
watch through the railings the rest of the world 
tramp past him. Then, again, he is never a Uni- 
versity man. But, for the rest, there is not much 
to choose between them. The tramping disposition 
is the same all the world over. The Road calls to 
her sons with irresistible appeal, they must go back 
to her though fortune beckons them away. And so 
I would return to the well-known roads of Russia, 
and breathe the life which stirs on every side. 

Listen to the language which they speak ! The 
wild, barbaric dialects of the Slav, so rich in pathos 
and sweetness tersely expressed, in whispering 
sibillants and caressing undertones. A language for 
love, if love be the lay. But if hate — then there 
are rasping gutturals and long-drawn consonants 
to accentuate the curse. Yet most of all it is the 
language of misery and bitterness. No artifice of 
words is needed to express the sorrows of the 
heart, the commonest moujik can tell his griefs in 
the wringing eloquence of a simple sentence. 
Whence did they come, and who was the mother of 
these Slavonic languages "i I cannot say ; but this I 



254 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

know, that they have borrowed from every tongxie. 
East and West have contributed to their vocabulary. 
Hebrew and Turk have lent them words, and even 
from China and Japan they have taken what they 
wanted. 

Gesture is an important feature in Russian con- 
versation, as it is with the French and Turks and 
Jews. The Frenchman emphasises his words with 
his head, shoulders and arms ; the Turk with his 
right hand. The Russian and the Jew are alike 
in their gesticulations, throwing as it were the words 
at their hearers from between the thumb and fore- 
finger of the right hand. The Jew adopts this 
mode of gesticulation in his studies of the Talmud 
with a fellow student ; at other times he will use 
both his hands with open palms. This eloquence 
of the hand is sometimes almost as expressive as 
words themselves. 

There is no language to me which can compare 
with the Russian for wealth of expression both in 
the spoken and written words. The language of 
Lomonosoff, Dershavin, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenieff, 
and Tolstoy I prefer to those of Bacon, Descartes, 
Goethe, or even Tasso. Read in the original 
Russian the works of Gogol, Turgenieff, and Tolstoy 
are unsurpassed in my opinion ; and I have yet to 
find a language which for pasr.ion and fire, for love 
and hatred, can rival Pushkin's verse. He gives us 
the beauty and sweetness of the lily and the despair 
of damnation* 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 255 

The soul of a nation finds expression in its lan- 
guage, in its music, and in its literature. The under- 
current of sadness which flows through the Slavonic 
languages, and the stifled, hopeless misery of their 
literature are a true index of the national character. 
And therefore, as we tramp through the crowded 
streets of the town out into the country beyond, 
where the voices of the peasants at work in the fields 
are borne to us on the breeze, we glean an impression 
of sadness, until a merry peal of laughter mocks 
us with its glaring contrast. And then we re- 
member that it takes very little to make the moujik 
happy. 

Where in the wide world can we find a more 
long-sufferinp;", patient, good-natured fellow than this 
Russian moujik^ whose laughter has jarred upon the 
melancholy train of our thoughts ? He is the proto- 
type of the Russian nation and the outcome of 
centuries of oppression. Suffering is to him a 
necessity of existence. He believes in it, and 
inflicts it on those who are dependent upon him 
for their own good. He will inflict it upon himself, 
if there is no one to make him suffer, which is not 
often the case. As a corrective to the normal state 
of misery in which he exists he is endowed with a 
quaint sense of humour which readily provokes him 
to mirth. He hates the popes of the Orthodox 
Church with fearful hate, mingled with superstitious 
dread of the powers, temporal and spiritual, of which 
they are possessed. His natural disposition is to 



256 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

drink vodka, tchisschinna, or tea, and to sing from 
morning to night. 

Russia would cease to be Russia if her folk-songs 
were taken away from her. But the songs which all 
Russia sings are not the happy ballads which the vine- 
yards of the sunny South provoke. They are rather 
the drifting minor melodies of the vast level plains 
and sombre forests and of the mighty rivers flowing 
relentlessly to the sea. They are sung to drown the 
perpetual wail of misery which sighs through the 
land from end to end. They are sung as a balm of 
forgetfulness, and as a palliative to pain. They are 
sung in the snow-bound hamlet where, huddled upon 
the heated oven, the moujik and his family while 
away the dreary winter evenings. They are sung 
by the soldiers on the march, though their backs are 
galled and their feet swollen. They are sung in the 
reek of battle, and by the camp-fire whilst the iron 
kettle simmers above the flames. They are sung 
in the blacksmith's forge and at the carpenters 
bench. For Russia is a land of song, and the 
cry of her heart, which she may not express in 
words, goes to heaven in the plaintive burden of 
her melodies. 

As an instance of the musical genius of Russia I 
will relate a personal experience of my own. In a 
town in Western Russia there was a tailors shop 
where I used sometimes to go for a suit of clothes. 
I called there one day to try on a coat which the 
tailor was making for me. Now the master-tailor 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 257 

was his own cutter, and whilst he was chalking 
fantastic lines upon the cloth he was singing a song 
which haunts me to this day. I listened in admira- 
tion ; but I do not think that he was even conscious 
of my presence ; for, presently, he went out of the 
room, and I was left with his assistants, who were 
sitting cross-legged on a long bench sewing industri- 
ously. But as soon as the master-tailor left the 
workroom, one of the assistants began to sing, and 
the others joined in. It was a beautiful and, indeed, 
a remarkable performance, for those Jewish tailors 
were singing in perfect tune, time, and harmony like 
a trained quartet. Needless to say, I did not disturb 
them ; but when they had finished I asked what 
manner of song it was. They answered that it 
was *' Koll Needrei " as Rasovsky sang it. Now 
Rasovsky was celebrated throughout Russia as a 
singer. Like many great Russian singers he had 
his own trained quartet, who supplied a harmonised 
vocal accompaniment to his songs, of which the 
'' KoU Needrei " was one of the most famous. The 
tailors, sitting at their work, had given a wonderful 
imitation of Rasovsky and his quartet, and I could 
not understand how it was possible for untrained 
voices to accomplish what they had done. But 
when I asked them if they could read music, they 
laughed, and thanked God that they knew how to 
reiad and write their mother-tongue, which was 
Hebrew ; but never an hour s instruction in music 
had they received. 



^58 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

I could hardly believe it, and questioned them 
further. But they adhered to their statements. 
They had never learnt music, but they had, of 
course, frequently heard Rasovsky sing in the 
synagogue, and they had acquired by ear the " Koll 
Needrei "in all its parts. 

** It is a song that suits our mood/' one of them 
explained. ** It is not a happy song." 

So this was the explanation. These poor tailors, 
whose existence was one long struggle, for whom 
tears and misery and the slavery of unending labour 
made up the measure of their days, were taught and 
trained by their hearts to sing. I asked them to 
sing to me again, if they knew any other songs, and 
they broke at once into a song from // Troubadour, 
which they rendered in perfect harmony, though I 
cannot say where they had heard it. 

I left the dingy tailor s shop with a sad heart ; for 
I realised that the songs which they sang were as 
the song of the nightingale, who only sings in 
pain. For Misery is the great school of music 
in Russia, and Affliction, rod in hand, is the 
chief musical director and conductor. At this 
academy all must learn to sing, aristocrat, moujik, 
and Jew alike ; and they are taught to sing from the 
heart. 

Let me transport the reader from the Jewish 
tailor's shop to the banks of the Volga. The camp 
fire is burning low, and the smouldering embers 
glow in the fading twilight ; whilst I stand by the 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 259 

riverside and try to inveigle the unwary fish with 
rod and line. Below me, a gang of Strugovtchiks 
are preparing to float their raft of timber down the 
Volga ; the trunks are securely lashed, and all is 
ready to cast off from the bank. As they push out 
into the stream one starts a song, and it is taken 
up by his comrades. The intense melancholy of 
the refrain is heightened by the lapping river, which 
murmurs an accompaniment to the song. I listen 
for the words, for surely the heartrending pathos of 
the air must be inspired by words as sad ; but they 
are simple and homely — 

*^ Whilst we are on the Mother Volga 
Our thoughts are with our friends at home.*' 

The raft drifts into the gathering darkness, but 
the voices of the Strugovtchiks are borne to me 
distinctly on the bosom of the river. My eyes are 
wet, the camp fire has burned itself out, the rod has 
fallen from my hands, and, for all I know or care, 
it may be drifting down the river in the wake of 
the raft. The voices are becoming fainter, and as 
I stand gazing up into the darkening sky, straining 
my ears to catch the last notes of the melody, the 
evening star glimmers faintly in the heavens above 
— and the song of the Strugovtchiks on the Volga 
is ringing in my ears as I write. 

Therefore, I say, let the cultured musician rave 
over the ready-made songs of professional vocal- 
ists, with their fantastic affectations and artificial 



260 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

mannerisms ; but give me the Jewish tailors 
singing on their bench the mournful strains of 
'' KoU Needrei," or the songs of the Strugovtchiks 
on the rafts on the placid stream of the Volga. A 
thousand times I prefer them, though I be classed 
as a Philistine for my preference. For these are 
songs sung from the heart, such as only the great 
master Misery can teach his pupils. 

The note of sadness which rings through every 
phase of Russian life is the private affair of the 
Russian people. It resounds in their language, in 
their literature, in their songs, because the soul of 
the nation has no other means of expression. But 
''officially" Russia poses before the world as a 
great and prosperous country, with a civilising 
mission. The gulf which separates the official 
view of Russia's destiny from the ideals and aspira- 
tions of the people is so great that patriotism, as 
we understand it, is unknown in Russia. On one 
side of the gulf are the governing classes, who are 
the mouthpiece of the country to the rest of the 
world ; on the other are the struggling masses of 
the people, who cry in vain for a drop of the water 
of liberty. But in the place of patriotism there is a 
consuming home-love in the heart of the people 
which chains them to the soil in spite of tyranny 
and oppression. 

In this respect the people of Russia present the 
greatest contrast to the people of our own country. 
The British subject will seldom change his nation- 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 261 

ality ; with him the boast that he is a citizen of the 
British Empire takes precedence of all other con- 
siderations, and he will often flaunt it offensively in 
the face of foreigners. Yet he will emigrate to any 
corner of the world, and make his home there, 
whether it be a British colony or a foreign land. 
He will still retain his nationality, and he will come 
willingly to the assistance of his country if he is 
needed ; but his birthplace is practically forgotten. 
He may revisit it in twenty or thirty years time, 
but he does so more from a feeling of curiosity 
than any other sentiment. His home is where 
he has settled and married and brought up his 
children. 

The Russian, on the other hand, will only quit 
his home for the purpose of escaping from extreme 
tyranny and oppression. But so great is the home- 
love in Russia that even the bitterness and injustice 
of autocracy are suffered with patience, so long as 
they can be endured '* at home." Ask a well-to-do 
Russian why he does not leave Russia and settle in 
a free country, and he will reply : " Oh, well, I 
would rather suffer in my own home, and among 
my own people, and speaking my own language. 
It miy be hell, but it is home too." If it were not 
for this devotion to the *' hallowed limits " of home, 
and for the doctrine of fatalism which pervades all 
classes in Russia, there would be a general exodus 
from the country. No man has ever emigrated from 
Russia who does not long to return to the poverty- 



262 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

stricken village he calls " home." Time does not 
obliterate his longing nor deaden his love for his 
birthplace, and the land of his adoption will never 
be home for him. Be he Jew or Lithuanian, Lett 
or true Russian, the district from which he came is 
his home for all time. 

It is a mistake to suppose that the Russian immi- 
pfrant who flies to our shores in the darkness of the 
night, pursued by the furies of hell, and finds with 
us an asylum and freedom from persecution, becomes 
forthwith a happy and contented man. Never speak 
to him of happiness so long as he is debarred from 
returning to the spot where his fathers lie buried, 
and where he was born. To the Russian Jew there 
is not the same sweetness and enthusiasm in the 
study of the Mishna in a strange land. He longs 
for the little Beth Hamedrosh of the wretched town 
from which he was driven by persecution and afflic- 
tion. 

If Russia to-day or to-morrow became a Constitu- 
tional country — and the contingency is a very prob- 
able one, if not to-morrow, then in the near future- 
there would be such an influx of immigration into 
the country that the railways and steamers would be 
taxed to their utmost limits to cope with it. There 
would be a great home-coming of those who have 
fled or have been driven out of their country, such 
as the world has never seen before. There would 
no longer be any necessity for the legislatures of 
Europe to pass measures to exclude from their 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 263 

borders destitute aliens who only ask for an asylum 
and to be allowed to live. We in England should 
be spared the pains of passing the Bill which the 
Government are to lay before Parliament in the 
coming Session, and thereby preserve intact our 
reputation as a land of freedom. The British work- 
ing man would be deprived of his best grievance, 
and would be faced by the fact that there is plenty 
of work for him and no foreign competition — if he 
will only do it. He will not even have time to 
join with his fellow labourers in demonstrations in 
Hyde Park with banners and flags and carriages 
full of labour representatives and members of 
Parliament. 

When Russia gets her Constitution all these 
matters will arrange themselves — ** We shall see! '* 
as Marshal Oyama said when it was suggested to 
him that it would be impossible for Japan to defeat 
a nation as mighty as Russia. 

It is impossible in writing of the soul of Russia 
to pass over without reference the fatalism which 
characterises the national temperament. But so 
much has been written on this subject lately that I 
hesitate to embark upon it. There is no doubt that 
this Oriental doctrine of fatalism enervates every 
class of society. Nothing matters in Russia, and 
therefore everything is allowed to slide. That has 
been the rule for hundreds of years until it has 
become an ingrained principle, which is a great 
factor in the submission of the people to the yoke of 



264 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TSAR 

autocracy. But with the new era which is dawning 
in Russia there will be the beginning of a change in 
the national character. Men will soon come to see 
that there are things which matter when they have 
a voice in the management of them. They will 
realise that what could not be helped under the old 
rSgimey they themselves have the power to help 
in the new. And so with freedom will come a con- 
ception of the responsibilities of life, and the doctrine 
of fatalism will gradually disappear. 

The future which lies before Russia is beyond 
computation, for there is nothing in the world which 
Russia has not got. Her climate surpasses that of 
America, Italy or Switzerland. Her resources are 
as yet almost untouched. The vast wealth of 
minerals which lie safely hidden in the bosom of 
Mother Earth is inexhaustible, and it only awaits 
the ingenuity of man to go and take it. Australia, 
Africa and California will pale before the marvellous 
treasures of Russia. The gold as yet untouched in 
Siberia alone is beyond estimation. Russia can 
satisfy the longings of the most avaricious fortune- 
hunters, and there will be room for all who care to 
go. But first Liberty must arise and assert her 
cause. She is already arming herself to strike re- 
lentlessly at the tyranny which has denied her a 
footing on Russian soil. She will no longer be 
denied ; and the world will soon be called upon to 
witness her struggle with the powers of darkness. 
And I who have been a tramp for years on the 



THE SOUL OF RUSSIA 265 

interminable roads and by the mighty waterways of 
Russia, who have listened to the anguish of her cry, 
and to the long-drawn sadness of her melodies, take 
off my hat to Liberty, and exclaim with Dryden — 

" Oh, give me liberty ! for even were Paradise my prison, 
still I should long to leap the crystal walls." 



Printed by Ballantyne <5r» Co. Limited 
Tavistock Street, London 



By the same Author 

RUSSIA AS IT REALLY IS 

Fourth Edition. Demy 8vo. 7s, 6d, 



Some Opinions of the Press 

WESTMINSTER GAZETTE. 

' "... Every stage of this vivid and dramatic narrative adds 
something essentially illustrative of the main theme of his book. 
In short, as an indictment of the Russian Government the 
cumulative effect is something tremendous. . . ." 

DAILY MAIL, 

" . . . In * Russia as It Really Is ' Mr. Carl Joubert has written 
one of the best accounts of the present state of the great empire 
of the Tsar we have seen. ..." 

THE BOOKMAN. 

"... Dr. Joubert writes from an intimate personal acquaint- 
ance with the country, which lends to his pages considerable 
value and distinct interest. . . ." 

VANITY FAIR. 

" A book worth reading. . . . Well, it is a gloomy picture ; 
and many are the voices which will be raised against Mr. Joubert 
as a traducer of the country in which he managed to live for nine 
years. Yet Mr. Joubert only tells us in plain words what the 
stifled voice of Russia is continually whispering in the ears of 
Europe, . " 



r. P.'s WEEKLY. 

"... Mr. Carl Jouberthas a story to tell, and he tells it with 
vigour and straightforwardness. ..." 

MANCHESTER GUARDIAN. 

*'. . . Mr. Joubert^s book is a work of real value. His 
account of his nine years in Russia is given in a vivid style; it is 
read with unfailing interest, and it shows that Mr. Joubert passed 
his time in Russia with open eyes and with a determination to 
learn the truth about the country. . . ." 

DAILY EXPRESS. 

"If any one has any lingering doubts as to the justice ot 
Japan's cause or as to the appalling state of Russia, he should read 
the latest book dealing with the country of < The God on Earth,' 
< Russia as It Really Is,' by Carl Joubert. . • /' 

THE SPECTATOR. 

"... Mr. Joubert gives a graphic description in the third 
part of the book, where he describes how — by the aid of the 
almighty rouble — he assisted some young friends of his to escape 
from Siberia, • • .'* 

ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE. 

"... His logic is perfect. . . . The Tsar is head of Church 
and State ; all the threads of government meet in his hands. • . .' 

OBSERVER. 

** * Russia as It Really Is,' by Carl Joubert, is a book of almost 
painful interest ; a remarkable work. • . ," 



LONDON: EVELEIGH NASH 

BEDFORD STREET, W.C. 



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